


Marriage and Zombies

by Kelkat9



Series: Time, Eternals and the Not Quite So Domestic LIfe [3]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Aliens, Bachelorette Party, Cemetery, Crack, Drunkenness, F/M, Humor, Mild Gore, Pete's World Torchwood, Pregnancy, Stag Nights & Bachelor Parties, Stripping, Weddings, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-07 18:11:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 30,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8811001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelkat9/pseuds/Kelkat9
Summary: Sequel to The Eternal Adventure - Jackie is determined to see TenII and Rose married. This is not your typical wedding and will be filled with challenges. It's a good thing Torchwood will be there!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the sequel to The Eternal Adventure. If you have not read that, some of this may confuse you but for the most part, I think you will get the gist of it. This starts out a few days prior to the wedding of TenII and Rose. Rose is pregnant but no one knows except the Doctor. Rose and TenII rescued Alt Jack (who is immortal but not by Bad Wolf) from being imprisoned on an alien world. He lives with them now. I do not recommend eating or drinking during the reading of this fic. It may be a bit funny. I credit who_in_whoville for enlightening me about Agent Provocateur.

“Doctor, are you about ready?" Rose asked, as she sat at her vanity, applying the last bit of her make up. He appeared behind her, leaning over, sweeping hair away from her neck and kissing her.

"We could just stay in," he murmured sexily into her ear.

She turned around, and he took a step back. She smiled through her annoyance at his obvious attempt to thwart the planned evening out. He looked delicious in the trim, chocolate brown pinstripe suit with the new bright blue tie with the brown and cream swirls. Then, there was his devastating smile which she swore could charm a charging hoard of Plumianto warriors into surrendering. "No, we have to do this. We already promised Mum, Jack, Jake, not to mention a whole bunch of other people who want to do this for us."

Having failed to charm her into staying in for the night, his smile quickly dissolved into a pout. "But whhhhyyyyy. It's just some stupid primitive Earth ritual and...." He stopped at the Tyler look of doom that he was now facing. In the best of circumstances, facing a Tyler woman with that look was not good. Given the unexpected turn of events of the past month and learning of Rose's impending motherhood added a whole new dimension to the intimidating look now directed at him. A pregnant, hormonal Tyler woman with her mind made up glaring at him like that was nothing to scoff at, much less irritate with his rebellion at primitive human nuptial rituals.

"Okay, fine, I'll go meet the blokes for a pint while you do your hen night thing. Don't know why we can't have one big party together. Just gonna be me stuck with Jack, Jake and the Torchwood boys getting smashed while they sing a bunch of obnoxious songs and tease me about the end of my bachelorhood," he whinged.

Rose ran a hand down his arm and looked at him sympathetically. "Oh, come on! It won't be that bad. Malcolm and Pete'll be there. So will Malcolm’s new assistant, Bradley, and Jake’s new partner, Angus, and you like all of them. I'm sure it'll be fine and you'll have fun," Rose tried to convince him as she stood and walked over to their a full length mirror. She looked at herself dressed in her dark denim jeans and tight white angora cardigan. "Does this look all right?"

He strode over to her and smiled. "No." She turned back to him, frowning. "No, it needs this," he added as he pulled out a delicate silver necklace with a silver pendent made of several circular loops with a pink stone in the middle. Her eyes glowed and her lips softened into a gasp.

"It's beautiful." Her voice cracked and her eyes wet with tears as he fastened it around her neck. "Thank you."

"Thought you might like it," he said as he handed her a handkerchief.

She sniffed and dabbed at her eyes. "Thanks. Oh, these bloody hormones! Please tell me I'm gonna not be like this till the baby's born."

"Yep, but it should get better as the pregnancy progresses. Your body will adjust. How are you feeling?"

"Other than ready to kill you one minute and snog you the next, okay. Certain foods set me off and then there's other times when it just hits me and I'm a mix of tired and excited. I feel good right now, though." She turned around and admired the necklace in the mirror. "Doctor, I know your super Time Lordy senses tell you I'm fine, but really shouldn't we figure out when this baby's gonna come? I just want to make sure he or she is okay after all that travel in the Netherworld," Rose said and turned to face him.

"Welll, I sort of maybe know when conception was," he told her, nervously tugging at his ear and pacing a bit.

She crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really? And, when were you gonna tell me about it?"

"Uh, I wasn't sure until our trip down the Amazon when the Encantado wouldn't take you. After that, I analyzed your hormone levels and was 99.9999% positive you were preggo, up the duff, with child."

"Wait! You knew then and didn't say!"

He stared at her like Bambi facing a hunting rifle. "Rose, sweetheart, I... well, you see you were worried and sick and there were Eternals mucking about and I thought maybe you knew and weren't ready to talk about it," he babbled.

"Didn't want to talk about it! I'm carrying our part alien baby and you think I didn’t want to talk about it! Seriously?" she asked him, her voice growing increasingly louder.

"Yes would be a bad answer, wouldn't it?" He shuffled back a few steps.

She rolled her eyes and paced over to the window, took a deep breath and turned around to face him. "Look, I know we haven't had much time to talk about this ’cos of the holidays, Mum's wedding stuff and all, but Doctor, we're gonna have to talk about what's going happen. I mean, I...I'm scared." She wrapped her arms around herself. "I didn't realize until we met Izzy what it would feel like and then I... well, it hit me. Izzy was standing in front of me and she's my kid. Then, when I got back here and took the test, it got even more real and I didn't know what to do or how to tell you."

"But, you did and it was brilliant. You're brilliant." He walked over and pulled her into his arms. He cupped her face. "Rose Tyler, you are without a doubt the bravest being I know. You are going to be fine. Our child will be brilliant. I promise you, when this wedding nonsense is over, we will talk about everything. We'll have a sit down on the TARDIS who as we speak is building the most magnificent med bay ever and take a good look at our little bundle of joy,” he said, patting her stomach gently.

“Yes, but what about…”

He put his finger on her lips. “Everything is fine. Your hormone levels are within normal parameters. You’re experiencing normal early pregnancy symptoms. Both you and the developing fetus are fine. I promise I will monitor you and the minute I think either you or the baby are even in the slightest distress, I will tell you and we will do whatever we need to in order to keep you both safe and healthy.” He lifted his finger off her lips. She smiled and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly to her.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you too,” he whispered back.

“But, you still have to go to your stag party,” she said, and pulled back and watched him pout. “Come on, before Jack comes up to see what’s keeping us and starts bouncing on the bed making suggestive comments.”

####

They arrived at the posh Dorchester, where Jackie and Pete had reserved two luxury suites to host the Doctor's stag night and Rose's hen night. The Doctor pulled up to the uniformed valet, tossed him the keys with a wink and went around to open Rose's door while Jack hopped out the back. They were in the elegantly decorated lobby by Jackie who already had a flute of champagne in her hand and a tray of three more flutes sitting beside her. Jack, who was dressed impeccably in a designer navy suit cut to accentuate his physique with a crisp white dress shirt with light blue strips and unbuttoned at the top, walked up and kissed her on each cheek. The sterling cuff links etched with a design of a “J H” sparkled in the lighting. Jackie was the picture of style dressed in white dress slacks with a soft pink jacket over a white lace blouse with a sweet heart neckline that enhanced her bosom. She wore a diamond necklace of white and pink diamonds that sparkled in the light.

"Here you are finally!" Jackie said, walking up to Rose and kissing her cheek. “You were due here half an hour ago.”

“Sorry, Mum. We wanted to take our time and enjoy the night. We didn’t mean to muck up your plans,” Rose told her as she accepted a flute of champagne looking at the Doctor who nodded his head indicating it was all right for her to have a glass. She reached over and lifted up the last flute and handed it to the Doctor who raised it up.

“To Pete and Jackie for making this lovely night possible,” the Doctor toasted.

Jackie smiled and walked over and embraced him. “See, I knew you’d come around. Took you long enough, though. Now then, off you go with Jack and I’ll take Rose upstairs. You boys try and stay out of trouble,” she said as she practically dragged Rose to the elegant wood paneled lift.

After Jackie and Rose disappeared, Jack directed the Doctor toward the lifts and up to the suite where the party was already in progress. Pete, Jake and other Torchwood people were crowded around an enormous television screaming and drinking beer while watching a match. Malcolm and his assistant Bradley were off to the side having a heated debate over a theory of particle physics. A couple other of Torchwood scientists were playing a game of darts. A waiter walked up to the Doctor and handed him a tall glass filled with a creamy yellow drink. He took a sip out of the straw and grinned. “Banana daiquiri!” he exclaimed, looking into Jack’s smiling face. “Maybe this night won’t be rubbish after all!”

Jack laughed and slapped him on the back. “Told you, Doc, I got you covered.”

The rest of the night sped by with everyone toasting him and shoving drink after drink in his hand so his glass was never empty. They played a rousing game of Kopf which was an alien drinking gaming which the Doctor taught everyone. It was a combination of cards and the rolling of four dice with symbols on each side resembling the Greek alphabet. Jack was somewhat familiar with it. Even Malcolm joined in with his preferred drink, Midori, which the Doctor tasted and wiped his tongue off, declaring it green and disgusting.

“Right, so whose roll was it?” Jack asked, wavering a bit on his chair as he sipped a dirty martini and winked at Jake, who just sat on his chair grinning and taking a chug of beer.

“Pete’s up!” Jake said, slurring slightly, and set his beer mug down on the table hard enough to slosh some over the side.

“Bloody hell! Again?” Pete asked, as he took a puff from his cigar. He grabbed the dice and threw them across the table and one bounced half way across the room. He then drew three cards and laid them face down in front of him. “Whadda I do again?” he asked, taking a drag of his gin and tonic.

“Oh, you know,” a very inebriated Doctor said, gesturing with his hands. " You have to chug the bottle ‘cos you lost the dice, uh, die, oh, something like that.”

Jack burst out in giggles. “That’s not how you play it!”

“What, you saying I don’t know the rules? I’ll have you know that I am a Time Lord. Brilliant I am. I know five billion languages and stuff. I know lots of stuff. See, I’m old and, and you’re not and what were we talking about again?” he asked, scratching his head.

“You’re wasted,” Pete declared, taking another puff of his cigar. “And, my wife’s gonna kill me ‘cos I’m suppose to keep you in line.”

“Bleh Jackie Tyler! Sympathies, Pete, old man. Ya know, you can always come hide out with Rose and I. Maybe we could….” he said, losing his train of thought before realizing Pete had accused him of being drunk. “Wait a minute, I’m not wasted! Superior Time Lord biology!” he declared. Several of the party goers laughed.

“Yeah, Doc, sure. That’s why you fell off the chair earlier and asked who turned the gravity off,” Jack said, plucking an olive out of his martini and popping into his mouth.

“Malcolm, you’re up,” Pete said around the cigar in his mouth.

Malcolm was wobbling on his chair staring at his drink. “Up where? What is up, why is everything so blurry?” he slurred.

Jake swiped the glasses off the top of his head and tried to put them on his nose but they ended up half on and half off. “Oh, my, I can see something.” Malcolm held his finger out in front of his face and touched his nose. He looked at Pete with a grin and his glasses half falling off his face. “I am quite inebriated,” he stated and fell sideways, crashing onto the floor.

“Fuck me, we killed him!” Jake shouted out, staring down at Malcolm who was still in the tipped over chair except now passed out.

The Doctor looked over at Malcolm “Naaaw, he’s fine,” he said, waving his hand in the air. “Fuck is such a boring curse word. Why do humans always seem to choose curses that are one syboly, sylboly uh syllable. That’s it.”

“That’s just this century, Doc. Bet I could teach Jakey here a few more satisfying words,” Jack said, grinning at Jake who winked back at him.

“Kylsaxcukwom!” the Doctor shouted. “Now that’s a curse word,” he said, and took another slurp of his daiquiri. “Ooo, or how about or Clallacpeldasacrisalvac!”

“Na uh. I can do better!” Jack boasted. “Zustlopak.”

“That’s rubbish! Kylsaxcukwom has panache,” the Doctor said sniffing.

“You’re both full of it. The aliens would be all over us by the time I said any o’ that,” Jake asserted, finishing off his beer and belching.

The Doctor grinned. “You know on Passarc IV belching is a declaration of…” Before he could finish, there was a knock at the at the door. Jack jumped up and ran to the open it. The Doctor, even though a bit fuzzy headed, realized something was up. He looked over at Jake and Pete who pretended to be fascinating with the cards on the table.

“Tell me he didn’t,” the Doctor said sitting up, his head clearing.

Jack walked back into the room with a tall girl with long ginger and wearing a tan trench coat. The Doctor groaned inwardly and glared at Jack. Jake and Bradley helped Malcolm up as several of the party goers nudged each other. Pete walked back to the bar followed by another Torchwood agent and proceeded to make some fresh drinks. The Doctor watched Pete attempt to fight off grin as he leaned down to grab a bottle of whiskey. Oh but the Doctor wouldn't make this easy on him, future father-in-law or not.

"So Pete, what, how are you gonna explain this to Jackie?" the Doctor demanded. Pete arched a brow and poured a glass. "Nothing to tell. We're just a bunch of blokes having a drink together."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Right, nothing to see here except the lovely lady flirting with Jack," he drawled. "I suppose we could try and convince her you hid behind the bar during all of this. Cause she'll believe that," the Doctor said with sarcasm as he regained a bit more of his sobriety.

Jake walked up to the Doctor and slapped him on the back. "You really gonna tell Jackie what went on tonight? I mean, do you wanna live to see your honeymoon? What goes on during stag night, stays on stag night. That's the code." Jake held up a bottle of beer toward Pete in a toast.

The Doctor's face scrunched up in confusion. "Code? There's a code? What code?"

Angus, a burly, crew cut Torchwood agent, walked over. He patted the Doctor on the shoulder and escorted the Doctor to the living room space shoving him in a chair which had been moved from the dining room. "The code is a bloke's duty to his fellow bloke," he said, as he leaned down and pulled out the Doctor's glasses and shoved hem on his face.

The Doctor winced and straightened them. "I've never heard of it. You sure about this? Sounds like you've had way to much of that Orvorin Whiskey which Jack still hasn't explained where he got it," he said, glaring at Jack. Jack was leaning in and whispering into the ginger girl's ear. He looked up and winked at the Doctor.

"You see, Doc..."

"That's Doctor to you!" the Doctor insisted, wagging his finger at Jack who walked over to him.

"Doc, you're on Earth and thus must adhere to the bloke's code. Rule number one, never tell a bloke's significant other about anything that happens on stag night." He patted the Doctor's cheek and collapsed onto the sofa where another Torchwood agent knocked knuckles with him and handed him a beer. The Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose hoping for an alien invasion to save him.

"Rubbish human male rules. Rule number one is don't wander off," he muttered under his breath, as the room was filled with the a pulsing beat of some seductive music.

Jack walked up and whistled loudly to get everyone's attention. "We all know we're here to celebrate the Doctor's last few nights of freedom. Not that being tied down or up." Jack winked at the Doctor. "to Rose is a bad thing. She's one gorgeous and flexible lady!" The Doctor glared at Jack and was about to have words when Jack finished his introduction.

"So, gents, I give you tonight's entertainment!" Jack finished, with a sweep of his arms as the ginger haired girl with the creamy white skin entered the room dressed in a white lab coat with black rimmed glasses and her hair in an up do. _She Blinded Me with Science_ by Thomas Dolby blasted through the room as she strutted toward the Doctor. He stared up at her in shock. She walked around him trailing her fingers over his shoulder before standing in front of him. She unpinned her hair and shook it out beginning to move in beat to the music and slowly unbuttoned her lab coat, shimmying out of it and tossing it off to the side so that it fluttered to the ground before a stunned Malcolm, whose mouth fell open. Jack was on the other side of the room moving his hips in rhythm to the music as the naughty scientist stripper continued removing her clothing. The rest of the group was smiling, drinking and murmuring "Now this is a bloody stag night!"

Beneath the lab coat, she was wearing a men's dress shirt, tie and obscenely short gray pinstripe skirt. She held her arms up and closed her eyes as she shimmied down close to the Doctor bumping and grinding her hips. As she leaned into the Doctor, she removed her tie and tossed it over her shoulder so that it landed on Pete's head. Pete choked on his drink and Jake slapped him on the back as everyone around him howled with laughter. Next, she slowly unbuttoned the shirt shaking her breasts in the Doctor's face. He looked at her in fascination, sniffed, and then looked up into her green eyes as she smiled at him.

Once her shirt was loose, she again tossed it to the side. This time, it flew through the air landing on a lamp. She shimmied to the ground as she divested herself of her skirt and walked over until she was standing in between the Doctor's legs giving him a lap dance. She grabbed him by the tie and pulled him forward until his face was in her large, bouncing breasts encased by only a miniscule emerald green lace bra.

His first thought when he saw her was about how this was so typical for human males to objectify and sexualize a being as some form of ritualistic male bonding entertainment. Suddenly, he caught a whiff of something familiar and looked into her eyes. His next thought was, “Something’s off." As she undulated and thrust her hips to and fro, he started to grin. "You know, you're quite good," he complimented her, earning him a sexy grin. "It's your earrings, isn't it," he asked, smirking. Her smile started to fall and she grabbed him by the tie. He let out an oopmh. "Right, so you don't want anyone to know which means you're hiding something," he whispered to her. Her grip tightened on his tie as she violently slammed his face into her bosom.

Having his face plastered into her breasts that didn't belong to Rose was not something he enjoyed. He pulled back. "Now see here, that's just rude. I'm just trying to be nice about this. You do realize you're surrounded by Torchwood agents whoever you are." With that comment, her face turned into a sneer and the claws came out, literally. 

"Oh, Kylsaxcukwom!" he swore, as he leaned away from her. She sliced through his tied with some rather nasty sharp looking appendages. "Oi! I liked that tie!" he shouted as he dove off of the chair away from her. There was a stunned silence in the room as she let out an ear piercing screeching whistle-like sound.

Before any of the party goers could react, the ginger girl transformed into a green, scaly bipedal alien with flowing ginger hair who stood a foot taller than the Doctor. It had sharp talons at the ends of it's arms. Its face was reptilian with two neon green eyes, a snout and a large mouth with sharp teeth along with a forked yellow tongue which shot out of it's mouth toward the Doctor. The Doctor ducked to the side. Soon, three more of the creatures burst into the room. Jake appeared at the Doctor's side, a dining room chair held out in front of him. "What's wrong with you!" Jake shouted as he fended off the ginger haired reptile.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, patting his pockets for his sonic screwdriver.

"Bloody alien stripper ruining a perfectly good party. Only you could have a stag night overrun by aliens!"

"Oi! It's not my fault! Go talk to Jack. He's the one who hired the alien stripper!" the Doctor yelled back at Jake, and turned to stare pointedly at Jack who was pelting the aliens with beer bottles whilst ducking behind the bar. He looked back at the Doctor and shrugged while grinning and picking up a bottle of whiskey.

He opened it and took a swig and was about to throw it when Pete screamed, "No, not the whiskey. Throw the bourbon!" Jack grinned set the whiskey aside and took a full bottle of bourbon and hit one of the aliens in the head with it. The alien howled in rage.

Malcolm, who was ducked behind a couch, peeked out. "I called Torchwood! Back up is on the way!" He ducked down just as a beer bottle came flying across the room near him.

***********************************

 

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the hotel, a the Tyler women and friends were having a bit of a posh party of their own. Jackie had arranged with Agent Provocateur, the local upscale lingerie shop, to provide them with an assortment of lingerie for all the girls so they could have a fun and flirty hen night. Each party goer then had fun trying on frothy, sexy and downright slutty concoctions of satin, silk and lace from teddies to baby dolls to full length vampy '20s couture lingerie. Champagne and cocktails were flowing liberally as was tray after tray of posh hors d'oeuvres, desserts and bon bons. Rose quietly stuck with mimosas and bellinis although they were mostly juice. Jackie was feeling no pain after practically single handedly drinking a bottle of pink Dom Perignon.

They all took turns trying on different sets with everything from garters, feathers in their hair and drop dead sexy stilettos to match their seductive ensembles. They listened to music with a sexy beat as they modeled lingerie and talked about boyfriends, girlfriends and spouses.

"Oh, my gawd, Rose!" Chelsea, one of the top field agents who was partnered with Rose before the Doctor arrived, exclaimed. "You look gorgeous! Oh, you make me sick. Why can't my boobs look like that!" she said while examining her breasts and shoving them up in her black bustier. Her violet-grey eyes staring crankily at herself in a full length mirror as the purple feathers swayed to and fro in her black hair when she moved. She angled her body and examined her black stockings and garters and then winced as she took a step in the black feather embellished stilettos. "How do you walk in these things?" she complained.

"You don't, sweetheart. That's the point!" Jackie told her, smiling as she sashayed in a pale pink full length silk gown with a slit up her thigh. The top was a held up by two jewel encrusted straps that wrapped around her neck. She also wore feather embellished stilettos only hers were white feathers. her hair was pinned up with a single white feather. 

She walked over to Rose who was sitting next to Mandy dressed in a burgundy teddy with black stockings. She had her hair fluffed out around her face and was holding up a black feather fan. Rose, who was curled up in a chair next to her, had on a Tardis blue lace baby doll with slim blue straps and neckline that plunged showing her cleavage and which was sheer from under the bustline down. She wore a matching thong of the same color and an equally blue bow in her hair which was loose around her face. She was giggling behind her own fan.

Jackie sat down beside her with a fresh bottle of champagne and topped off Rose’s bellini. “Are you having fun, sweetheart?"

Rose leaned over and laid her head on Jackie's shoulder. "This is the best hen night ever! Thanks, Mum." Jackie beamed, and the two women hugged. Suddenly, every mobile in the suite seemed to buzz and ring. The women all sat up and raced for their phones. Rose took one look at the message and whispered one word, "Doctor."

"What is it? What's wrong?" Jackie demanded.

“It’s a code E priority one right here in the hotel!” Chelsea responded, scrambling to find a weapon. “Shit, all I have is my stun gun!” she swore, and then realized with the bustier ensemble she had nowhere to hide her gun. “There’s no time! We have to go now!”

“Go where?” Jackie demanded as the rest of the women in the party grabbed whatever they could find to use as a weapon and headed out the door, including Rose.

“Rose, where do you think you're going?” Jackie demanded, hands on her hips.

Rose slipped on the matching sheer robe with blue feather trim and was heading out the door. “It’s the Doctor’s Stag Party, Mum. They called Torchwood for back up. They wouldn’t have called for help if it wasn’t serious. We’ve got to go, Mum!” Rose explained as she dashed out the door in her stilettos.

“Not without me, you don’t!” Jacked called out, grabbing a bottle of champagne as she dashed out the door after them. 

The group of scantily clad women dressed in silky teddies, camisoles, gowns and baby dolls in various colors, wearing feathers and stilettos, dashing down the hotel hall made for quite a sight. A husband and wife walking to their room plastered themselves against a wall as the group of women ran by them. When they reached the suite where the Doctor’s stag party was, they lined either side of the door. Chelsea and Rose were in the lead and counted to three before Chelsea kicked the door open and jumped in the room, assuming a shooting stance with her taser in front of her. Rose was close behind her, sonic in her hand.

“Torchwood, nobody move!” Chelsea yelled, her black bustier rising and falling as she breathed heavily from the adrenaline rush and still wearing her feathered stilettos. The rest of the women filed in behind her, wielding whatever weapons they had on hand. The four aliens, one of whom who was standing menacingly over Pete, turned toward them. The Doctor, sonic in hand while standing next to Jake and holding a chair, stared at the scantily dressed Torchwood group with his mouth hung open.

“Rose, what are you wearing?” he asked, as he stared at her chest and then up at the blue bow in her hair. “Are you a prezzie for my stag night?” he asked excitedly.

Jackie pushed her way through the group, and the Doctor’s face fell. “Have you lost your blooming mind! What the ‘ell is going on here!” she demanded, holding the bottle of champagne like a club. The aliens let out a shriek. Chelsea shot the one in front of Jake and the Doctor with the stun gun, and it jerked away and faced her.

“Oi! Why’d you do that? Now she’s angry!” the Doctor shouted.

“Now she’s angry?” Chelsea asked as one of the women handed her an umbrella, which turned into a sword which she held in front of her with an excited grin.

“Fuck yes! It’s Xena Warrior Princess!” Jake shouted and fist pumped the air. Jack, who was across the room holding a coat rack fending off another alien, burst out laughing.

The Doctor turned to Jake with a look of confusion. “What!” At that point, everything happened quickly. 

Chelsea, followed by several women including a lamp wielding Mandy, charged the room. Rose started hitting settings on the sonic, exploding glasses and light fixtures until the Doctor shouted out a setting number to her. Jackie who saw the alien threatening Pete shouted out, “Oi, you alien menace! That’s my husband!” She promptly clubbed the alien with the champagne bottle, knocking it to the side where it collided with a wall and fell to the ground. Mandy and another negligee garbed party goer were fending off another alien while Malcolm peered from behind a couch.

Finally, the Doctor and Rose activated their sonics in sync, sounding a piercing sound that made all the aliens collapse unconscious. After a pause, the group all shouted out and jumped up and down in celebration. Jackie ran up to Pete and threw her arms around him. As everyone quieted down, she pulled away.

“Oi! What’s that smell? Pete Tyler, have you been smoking?” she asked, in a very unhappy and demanding voice. She squinted her eyes, and even in her inebriated state was able to pull off a Tyler woman glare.

Malcolm stood up and stared at Mandy dressed in her burgundy teddy and black stockings. “Mandy, you look…that is to say, uh, I really like..” Malcolm was so flustered he couldn’t finish. He was blushing and couldn’t take his eyes off of Mandy.

Mandy, stilling holding the lamp as a weapon, smiled shyly. “Hi, Malcolm. Uh, we heard you needed some help.”

Chelsea, who was standing nearby, rolled her eyes. “Mr. Tyler, are you all right, sir?” she asked, now in professional Torchwood agent mode despite being clad in a black satin bustier and matching knickers. Before Pete could answer, one of the aliens groaned. Chelsea took off one of her stilettos and smacked it over the head, knocking it unconscious.

“Thank you, Agent Nelson,” Pete responded with as much dignity as he could considering his agents were either drunk, dressed in lingerie or both.

Jackie crossed her arms and huffed. Jack walked up to Rose and the Doctor and set the coat rack down as his eyes raked over Rose. “So, hen night, eh, Rosie?” he said with a smirk.

Rose crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at Jack. “Yeah, and what’s this? Some fifty first century stag night thing? What, you lot get drunk and take on rampagin’ lizard whatsits?” she asked, cocking an eye brow. She turned to the Doctor. “What happened to your tie?”

“Oh, the alien stripper destroyed it,” he said without thinking. He then grimaced.

“Alien stripper!” Jackie shouted out before Rose could say a word. All the men cringed. A few might have skulked out of the suite.

“Don’t look at me!” the Doctor said, backing up to stand behind Rose. “It was Jack! Blame him.” Rose looked at Jack, whose charming smile slipped.

“Well, I didn’t know she was an alien. I mean she came very highly recommended,” Jack said, backing away from Jackie who had picked up the champagne bottle she set down when she ran to check on Pete.

Rose broke out into giggles and Jackie turned to her. “It’s not funny, Rose. They were in here up to God knows what with some perverted alien tart.” This made Rose break out into howling laughter. The Doctor might have been smiling himself as he turned to his laughing bride to be.

Jackie sighed and turned to face the rest of the stag night party goers. “Fine, you lot made this mess and you can clean it up. Come on, girls, let’s go back to our non-alien infested party.” 

She stood up straight and walked over to Rose taking her arm, and began leading the women out just as a black-clad Torchwood team filed into the room. She paused and turned to them. “Finally, took you lot long enough. Lucky for you we got here and saved this lot of drunken perverts from their disgusting alien tart stripper.” 

She huffed and marched proudly out, followed by the rest of the lingerie clad women still clinging to their weapons. After the last of the women had left, the Torchwood team turned back to Pete, the Doctor, Jake and the rest of the men and tried to stifle their laughter as they marched in to secure the aliens and take statements.

Before any of them left for the night, Pete cleared his throat. “Thank you all for assisting in this operation. I want to make clear that any videos or photographic evidence taken during this mission is classified priority one. If I find anything published or posted in any media, on the internet or posted to any Torchwood bulletin board, the administrative response will be stiff and painful. Do I make myself clear?” Pete said, in his most professional and authoritative manner. All the agents in the room nodded and responded with a “Yes, sir!”

After everything was cleaned up, aliens removed and the last of the investigating team gone, the remainder of the men collapsed on the sofa, in chairs or on the floor. Pete sat with the bottle of whiskey and a glass next to the Doctor. He poured them each a glass. “Welcome to the family,” he said and clinked glasses with the Doctor, who just stared at him in horror. This would be a stag night that would live in infamy in the annals of Torchwood.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You should read The Eternal Adventure first but it's not entirely necessary. Fraunk was introduced in the Eternal Adventure in Chapt 26. More wedding details were discussed in Chapts 31 and 36. Fraunk was based upon the character of the same name in the movie “Father of the Bride.” He speaks with a very odd and pronounced accent. Oh and develish1 provided me with the suggestion for alien stripper in last chapter :)

Several days after the infamous stag and hen night, Rose was packing for the trip to the Tyler mansion. Her Mum insisted that they all arrive two days before the wedding so they could go over last minute details; be on time for the rehearsal; and spend some family time together before the Doctor and Rose left for their honeymoon. Rose sighed as she neatly folded up the blue lingerie she had worn for her hen night. The Doctor wasn’t supposed to see it until their wedding night, but unfortunately after the whole alien stripper incident, he‘d already seen it. Of course, she might have a few other surprises planned for him. She smirked as she tucked her bag of seductive treats into the bigger on the inside luggage.

After she closed the suitcase and locked it with a click, she walked over, ran her hand along the bedroom wall and closed her eyes. After completing their Eternal tasks, her connection to the mother TARDIS coral (TCB) residing beneath the house was now even stronger. She looked at the wall and smiled, projecting feelings of love and happiness to the TCB.

“Thank you for everything. I’m starting to get a bit of a feeling for what it must be like for you,” Rose told her. She felt a bright warmth envelop her. Although the TCB was unable to communicate in words that a linear species such as Rose would understand, the TCB was still able to convey a form of feelings and desires to Rose. She placed her hand on her stomach and smiled. “I promise I’ll take good care of your offspring. Both the Doctor and I want them to thrive.” Rose heard the Doctor calling her name. She patted the wall and went downstairs to the library where she found the Doctor and Jack having one of their typical disagreements over some small human custom or cultural reference.

“Doctor, Jack, everything all right? You two about ready to leave?”

“No it is not all right!" The Doctor glared at their friend. "Jack here seems to have some weird ideas about our wedding,” the Doctor explained, pacing in front of Jack who was leaning casually against the Doctor’s desk.

“It’s history, Doc. Maybe not in your universe, but here, it’s tradition for the groom to bonk the bride over the head with a shoe. See, the father of the bride gives the groom some of her shoes as a symbol, sort of the passing of responsibility.”

“I am not hitting Rose over the head with anybody’s shoe.”

“Then there’s the chimney sweep. Rose has to be kissed by a chimney sweep on her way to getting married. Lucky for you, I just so happen to qualify." He grinned and pushed off the desk. "Had a mission here on Earth in the early 1400s and I went undercover as a hot chimney sweep and let me tell you, I did clean the lady of the house’s chimney,” he said, with a wink at Rose.

Before the Doctor could continue his rant, Rose stepped in. “Doctor, Jack is sort of right, but nobody does the shoe thing anymore. That was done a long time ago. I think Fraunk and Mum might have mentioned that it’s considered good luck to have a chimney sweep at the wedding. Not sure about the kissing part, but I’m sure there’s plenty of good luck kisses to be passed out that day,” she said, and winked back at Jack. The Doctor rolled his eyes.

“What about not seeing each other before the wedding? You gonna do that?”

“No,” said the Doctor while simultaneously Rose said, “Yes.”

“What?” the Doctor asked, staring at Rose.

“Doctor, it’s tradition. Mandy, Chelsea and me will be at one end of the house and you, Jake and Jack will be at the other.”

The Doctor scowled and looked at Jack who was smiling. “Sounds like a rubbish superstition to me.” The Doctor walked over and grasped Rose’s hand. “Can’t you just tell Jackie that I have a cultural requirement to be with you before the wedding?” he asked, giving her a pouty look.

Rose looked at his puppy dog eyes and pouty lips and nearly gave in. “It’s just for one night and we’ll be in the same house. Doctor, we survived the Netherworld. I think one night apart in the same house isn’t gonna be that bad.”

He gazed into her eyes. “Rose Tyler, I was once separated from you by an entire universe and when I arrived here I promised I would never be parted from you again.” He paused and opened his psychic connection to her. “But, if we have to follow some rubbish human nuptial ritual to assure I will never be parted from you again, then so be it.”

Overwhelmed by his declaration, Rose pulled him into her arms and snogged him until Jack cleared his throat. When they parted, the Doctor was smiling. “Course, just cause we can’t see each other doesn’t mean I can’t come and ring your psychic doorbell or call you on the mobile now does it?” he teased.

Rose smiled brightly at him. “Sounds good to me. Just don’t tell Mum.” She kissed him again. “Now come on both of you. We need to get going. Doctor, You moving the TARDIS and meeting us on the way?”

“Yep!”

“You show up a week late or something and you’re on your own with Mum.”

The Doctor paled and nodded. “Not a problem. Time Lord you know. Uh, I’ll just head back to the TARDIS and double check the coordinates,” he said, backing out of the room.

Jack smirked and walked up to Rose. “Don’t worry Rose, I’m sure he’ll be there on time.” Rose stared at him and cocked an eyebrow.

“Right, maybe we should call him when we’re on the road so he can check the date just to be safe. We can stop off at that new chocolatier on the way to Jackie and Pete’s place. That should give him plenty of time to make any, um, date corrections,” Jack told her, smiling. “I hear they have this new bon bon called “extase saveur.”

“That’s French for flavor ecstasy, right?”

“Yep, the ganache they fill it with has a special combination of spices which triggers the pleasure center in your brain. Makes everything better if you know what I mean,” he said with a sexy smile.

“Jack, go load the luggage,” she said, rolling her eyes as she picked up her purse and headed for the car.

“Hey, I’m just sayin'! Not that you and the Doc need it judging by the noises I hear at night but--”

Rose stopped and turned, aiming the Tyler glare at him. “Jack!” she called out in warning, her arms crossed.

“Right, luggage. I won’t be a minute,” Jack promised, with a saucy grin and a sparkle in his eyes as he dashed up the stairs. Rose shook her head and continued out to the car.

Luckily, the Doctor landed on the outskirts of the Tyler estate a few minutes before Jack and Rose arrived. He hopped in the car and reached for the bag of truffles they picked up at the chocolate boutique in town. Rose slapped his hand away. “Those are to keep Mum happy!“ Rose said, as the Doctor slumped back into the back seat. Jack drove them up to the house where Jackie and Fraunk met them out front amidst at least a dozen parked cars.

“There she ess, my loafly bride!” Fraunk greeted, dressed in another immaculately tailored suit with an equally posh winter coat. Rose walked up to Fraunk who kissed her on each cheek as the Doctor and Jack pulled luggage out of the car. “And the grome and his fabolous Yack.

Welcome ovaryone. Lot us half a little bitty mating in the sitting roam,” Fraunk told them, and sashayed over to Jackie to escort her inside.

Jack looked at the Doctor who was snickering. “Little bitty mating sounds good to me,” Jack commented.

“All right now, both of you behave. Mum and Fraunk have put a lot of time into this wedding so try and be a respectful,” Rose admonished around her own grin.

“But Roooose he’s Fraunk and he wants us to have mating in the sitting roam. I mean come on, that’s just gonna be--” Rose cut the Doctor off.

“Doctor, do you want that chocolate fountain at the wedding?”

The Doctor smirked and mimicked zipping his lips shut as they walked into the house. When the arrived in the sitting room, both Jackie and Fraunk appeared to be in organizer mode. Jackie had a clipboard with a chart on the top and most frighteningly, a silver whistle hung around her neck.

As they set the luggage down, Jack leaned over and whispered to the Doctor, "Is Jackie carrying a clipboard?"

"I'm afraid so," the Doctor said with a worried expression on his face. He walked over to Rose and sat down next to her gripping her hand like it was a life saver. He sent a telepathic message to her. "Tell me Jackie doesn't have a whistle."

She sent him a mental giggle. "I'm afraid so. She might be a bit um--"

"Loony," the Doctor thought back at her. Rose elbowed him as a smiling Jackie with Fraunk at her side proceeded to give them their tasks for the day.

"Now then, all of you listen up. We have lots to do and there's to be no more fooling around or causing trouble," Jackie said, staring at the Doctor. "We need to get Rose upstairs and ready for her bridal session."

"Bridal session?" the Doctor asked, with raised eyebrows.

“Oh yas!” Fraunk confirmed, nodding enthusiastically. "Zarina Dubois ess a jaynus photograferr!" Fraunk exclaimed, and kissed his pinched fingers in the air in a most flamboyant manner. "She ess very exclusive and we our fairy blassed to half her for this wadding."

The Doctor's face scrunched up in typical Fraunk translating expression. "Photograferr? Fairies?" he muttered. Jack who was sitting next to him tried to stifle a giggle.

"Shut it," Jackie said, and checked something off her clipboard and stood up. “Now then, Rose is with me and you and Jack will go with Fraunk to check the fit of your tuxes and discuss what you’ll be doing the morning of the wedding. Come along Rose! Reva Awng’s stylist is waiting on us and we have to do your hair and makeup before we can start taking pictures.”

Rose looked at the Doctor, leaned over and kissed him. “Try to behave. Remember, it’s only for another couple of days.” She looked at Jack. “Jack, I’m counting on you to help him.”

“You can count on me, Rose! Don’t worry about us, we’ll have a great time with Fraunk,” he assured Rose, with a ‘you can trust me’ grin and a mischievous look in his eyes. Rose stood up and murmured to herself, “What am I thinking?” She walked out with her mum and headed upstairs to prepare for pictures.

The rest of the afternoon went by quickly. Rose had a bit of turmoil with the poking, prodding and primping by the wedding stylist and hair and make up team. Her moaning was quickly silenced when she saw herself in the mirror. The white one shouldered silk gown which was even more gorgeous than she remembered. With the hair combs studded with pearls and sparkling with white and blue stones holding her hair up, both she and Jackie cried.

Fraunk’s assistant was ever present with tissues to dab tearful eyes. The photographer met them in the garden which had already been styled with flowers and plants that were brought in special for the wedding. Everyone was wrapped in coats and heaters were brought in as a photo shoot in February was a bit chilly. By the time it was over, Rose was all too grateful to get inside, out of the dress and into some warm clothing.

The Doctor and Jack tried their best to be tolerant of their own primping and prodding. Of course, trying and succeeding were two different things. The fitting and styling of the Doctor came to a head when Fraunk brought in a suit for the Doctor to wear for the rehearsal dinner which had been procured at Jackie’s request.

“No, absolutely not! I have my own clothes and I’m already wearing a tux for the wedding.”

“Of course the grome hass his own stoyle. The photograferr wall be at the rehearsal dinner to tok more pictures. Mrs. Tyler thought it mate bay loafly if the grome matched the bride at the dinner. The bride hoss the most stylish gone. Ess to die far in the most elegant shade of blau. This loafly suit wall bay parfaction.”

“What’s wrong with my brown pin stripe?” the Doctor asked, cranky at having his taste questioned.

“Doc, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just this one’s a bit more um… I think posh is the word isn’t it Fraunk?”

“Yas! The gorgeous Yack understans.” Frank looked flirtatiously at Jack who smiled back with one of his own flirty smiles.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. “But it’s plain and dark colored and looks like something you’d wear to a funeral,” he whinged.

“Oh no, no. no! Fraunk would nevar half the grome dressed for the funeral.” Fraunk showed the Doctor the subtle sapphire color woven through the suit and then whipped out his secret weapon, a stylish tie with swirls of cream, navy and sapphire blue. Next he showed the Doctor a dress shirt in a lighter color that completed the ensemble.

“Well, I suppose the tie makes it better,” he grudgingly admitted, sniffing a bit.

“It’s just for one evening, Doc,” Jack said, trying to mediate and get the clothing issue settled.

“Fine, but I’m still wearing my trainers,” the Doctor insisted.

After the debate about rehearsal clothing and the endless review of wedding day details that practically had the Doctor either falling asleep or examining or destroying every item in the room, Fraunk declared them done. The Doctor fled the room quickly leaving Jack and Fraunk to breathe a sigh of relief.

Jake and Mandy joined the family for dinner that night. Jackie wanted all members of the wedding party to stay at the mansion to help manage the Doctor at the wedding or at least, that was the way Jackie explained it.

“So Jakey, anything interesting happening at Torchwood?” the Doctor asked during dinner.

“Don’t you even think about it,” Jackie warned. “I will not have any alien stuff ruining this wedding.” Jackie directed a stern look at all of them, including Pete.

Jake grinned. “Oh I understand, Jackie. I wouldn’t worry, it’s been pretty quiet lately. Well, except for those nutters in Norwood.”

The Doctor’s eyes lit up. “Nutters? Do tell?”

Rose grinned as she dug into the pasta carbonara dinner.

“Rose, sweetheart, remember, you have to fit into that dress. We don‘t want them to have to let it out again.” Jackie said, as she watched Rose devour more pasta and then eye the Doctor’s unfinished plate.

“Oi! Rose can eat whatever she wants," the Doctor exclaimed. "You practically starved her today on your quest to take pictures in that frozen wasteland you call a garden.” the Doctor wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders and shoved his plate over to Rose so she could snatch his carrots. Jackie just glared at him.

Jack decided to intervene. “So Jake, what’s the deal with this report in Norwood?” he asked, as he swirled wine in his glass.

“Oh it’s just some crazy stuff about grave robbers and some nutters walking around dressed like zombies scaring people who had one to many at the local pub.”

“Grave robbers,” the Doctor said in a soft voice filled with awe.

Mandy perked up. “Oh yes, I read the report. It was weird. Several graves at the historic cemetery there were just ripped open and the bodies are missing. Who would do something like that?” Mandy asked, adjusting her glasses.

“You are not going into London to visit some cemetery. Pete, tell them,” Jackie insisted.

“We already sent a team to check it out. Just a routine drive by. I’m sure it’s nothing. Probably just some kids playing around,” Pete assured her.

“Yeah, we think it’s some kind of hazing thing. Got another couple of reports on the way over here. All the reports are from areas near some universities. We sent a couple of agents out just to scare the pants off of whoever’s doing it,” Jake told them.

Jack grinned. “Hey, when I was in training for the Agency, we did plenty of crazy stuff. It’s probably nothing.”

“And your not gonna make it anything either,” Jackie told the Doctor.

“Me? Would I do that?” he asked innocently. Several people choked on their drink in response.

After dinner, Jackie gave them strict instructions to behave themselves. No drinking, alien strippers or alien hunting allowed. The group all looked at each other and grinned.

“Don’t worry Mum, we’re not going into London tonight. We promised we’d stay here for the wedding and that’s what we’re gonna do. Right, Doctor?” Rose said, gripping the Doctor’s arm to get his attention.

“What? Oh yes, right-o, exactly what Rose said. We’ll be good,” he said and directed a charming smile at Jackie.

She shook her head. “S'pose it’s a nice thought. All right, don’t stay up too late and I’ll see all of you for breakfast.” She turned and went up stairs with Pete who stared hard at all of them for a bit. He winked at Rose and went upstairs.

“Soooo, what’s the plan?” Jack asked, sipping a snifter of cognac and looking at the Doctor who just grinned at him.

Mandy looked up from her laptop with a naughty smile. “Ya know, all the cemeteries were more than two hundred years old and there’s an old cemetery nearby that’s similar in age and geology,” she told them, toying with her multicolored scarf that matched her new purple jumper.

“Mandy, I knew I liked you!” the Doctor said, and looked at Rose with raised eyebrows. She returned his excited look.

“You gotta be kidding! You want go sniffing around some cemetery at night like a bunch of Scoobies?” Jake asked, as he downed his cognac in one go.

“Let’s see, we could stay here prisoners of the Jackie Tyler Detention Center of Nuptial Servitude or we could go investigate an old cemetery and see if we can catch some body snatchers,” the Doctor said with an excited look and waggled his eyebrows.

Jake looked over and grinned. “I’m in! Where’s the flask? It's bloody cold out there!”

“A secret mission,” Mandy whispered excitedly. “I’m so in too!”

The Doctor turned to Rose. “Like you even have to ask,” she told him, practically bouncing up and down.

Jack downed his drink and rubbed his hands together. “Right, let’s do this. But, someone has to explain what the hell a Scooby is,” he asked as they all quietly crept out to grab their coats and bundle up for their very unauthorized investigation into the old cemetery.

After they bundled up in heavy coats and scarves not to mention nicking a few flasks filled with Pete’s good whiskey, they snuck out of the house. Rose disabled the alarm and the Doctor conveniently disabled the security lights so they had the cover of darkness to escape the watchful eye of the suspicious Jackie Tyler.

After they were on their way, Jake explained the essence of Scooby Doo to Jack.

“So you’re saying we’re like a bunch of teenagers who investigate haunted houses,” Jack said, as they walked up a hill toward the cemetery.

“Pretty much,” Jake responded, taking a swig from his flask.

“So who’s who then?” Jack asked.

“Whadda ya mean?” Jake asked.

“Well if we’re these Scooby kids, who’s who?”

“Well obviously, I’m Fred and Rose is Daphne,” the Doctor said with authority. Rose stopped and stared at him.

“What? I know about Scooby Doo. I may have watched a bit with Tony. You know Scooby dooby doo where are you?” he sang. Rose burst out in giggles and Jake turned around and stared at him.

“Blimey you're not just a nutter! You’re completely out there mate,” Jake said grinning.

Once she recovered, Rose asked him, “So why am I Daphne then?”

The Doctor just stared at her. “Two words: jeopardy friendly. You and Daphne both. I mean seriously, have you watched the program? Daphne is always getting captured or getting in trouble.”

“Oh yeah?” Rose asked arms crossed with a challenging stare.

“Okay, so if the Doctor is Fred, the heroic leader who builds the traps that invariably fail and Rose is Daphne the gorgeous trouble magnet, who are the rest of us suppose to be?” Jack asked.

“Mandy is Velma 'cos she’s brilliant!” Rose said, grinning at Mandy who smiled brightly.

“Oh I know! Jake is Shaggy!” Mandy said, looking at Jake with half her face hidden in her scarf.

“Yes!” Rose shouted, and the two girls jumped up and down in excitement as the doctor snickered at the expression on Jake’s face.

Jake scratched his head. “Why am I Shaggy?”

“Cause you are, Jake. You got the whole scruffy thing going on,” Rose said, with a grin.

“And that would make Jack, Scooby!” the Doctor said, hands in his pockets rocking back on his heels.

“You’re calling me the dog?” Jack asked, with a puzzled look on his face.

Jake burst out laughing. Jack looked him and then started to grin. “So you’re calling me the heroic dog who saves the day and everyone loves and gives treats to. I mean, he is the title character that the whole show is written about. Yeah, that could be me 'cos I am the lovable heroic type,” he said grinning. Everyone burst out in laughter at that point. They told Scooby stories the whole way to the cemetery.

When they finally reached the cemetery, the sky had become cloudy, covering the moon so they all pulled out their torches. The cemetery itself wasn’t too large, and was surrounded by an old dilapidated wrought iron fence popular in Victorian cemeteries. They walked up to the main gate which was padlocked. The Doctor grinned, soniced it and tossed the sonic in the air.

“Show off,” Jack teased.

“Come on, you lot. It’s bloody freezing and I’m almost out whiskey,” Jake groused.

Jake and Jack walked in, first shining their torches on the hard packed dirt path as they entered dark and misty cemetery. The Doctor and Rose were walking hand in hand behind them with Mandy next to Rose. After wandering around the paths at the front of the cemetery for twenty minutes, Jake turned to the Doctor. “There’s nothing here. You see anything?”

The Doctor pulled out his sonic and left the path to explore, running around and over several graves hopping over stones as he went.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit disrespectful to go walking across graves,” Mandy called out to him.

He stopped and looked at her. “I don’t hear them complaining do you?” he asked, with a smirk. He then turned and hopped and climbed his way through and over the marble stones and decorative bushes and walls of the various plots.

“Doctor, be careful! It‘s not safe to go running through a dark and scary graveyard!” Rose called out to him. He waved his hand in the air like it was no big deal.

Mandy looked at Rose. “That’s your fiancé disrespecting the dead.”

“Yep, that’s my Doctor, rude and not ginger,” Rose explained, and began to carefully make her way through the graves after him.

Mandy sighed and followed. She turned and looked at Jack and Jake who were standing off to the side with their flasks. “You two coming?”

“Ya know, think we’ll just stay back here and be the lookout this time,” Jack said, and clinked his flask with Jake.

“Right,” Mandy said and turned to follow Rose. A little way in, Rose and Mandy heard the Doctor yell, “Aha!” and then an "Oomph." They flashed their torches up ahead. "I don't see him," Mandy said, squinting and flashing the light across the gravestones.

"Doctor?" Rose called out. They heard some muffled curses and slowly walked through the soft grass, carefully avoiding the old broken and cracked gravestones. They were in an older section of the graveyard and it was not as well maintained as where they entered. There were many tall trees canopying the area with large roots sticking out of the ground and an overgrowth of decorative bushes and grass.

"Doctor?" Rose called again.

"Over here," they heard his muffled voice call out. "Be careful. Don't fall in."

"Fall in?" Mandy asked and both she and Rose stopped and shined their lights on the ground up ahead until they saw an area that appeared to be a cave-in. They carefully walked up to it and looked down. There, sitting in the caved-in grave, on top of an old destroyed coffin sat the Doctor covered in dirt and scowling. Rose and Mandy started giggling.

"You all right down there?" Rose asked through her giggles.

He looked up at her unhappily. "It's not funny. The ground was soft and gave away near the edge."

"We warned you not to go running through a grave yard," Rose stated, with a smile. "Well at least you found an empty grave, right?" she said cheerfully. "I mean it is empty isn't it? You don't have dead person all over you do you?" She and Mandy backed up a few steps from the edge grimacing at this thought.

The Doctor sighed. "No, there's no corpse down here, just dirt and an empty deteriorated coffin. Although..." he said, and then stopped his explanation as he quietly began muttering to himself. They watched the sonic whizz around a few times. Jack and Jake shouted out to them and asked if everything was okay. Rose and Mandy looked at each other grinning and shouted back "No." They heard Jake swear and both of them start to make their way over. By the time they arrived, Rose and Mandy were shining their lights into the grave so the Doctor could complete his inspection of the destroyed coffin.

Jake and Jack stepped up beside them and peeked over the edge. "Bloody hell, he found something," Jake muttered.

"Well technically, I think it found him," Mandy said smiling.

"Yeah, he sort of fell in," Rose added bumping shoulders with Mandy.

"I heard that!" floated up from the open grave.

"Hey Doc, you okay down there?" Jack called out, trying not to laugh.

The Doctor muttered a curse before responding. "What? Oh, I'm fine. Looks like our friendly body snatchers were here but--"

"But what?" asked Jake, who was now carefully walking around the edge of the hole looking for evidence and to make sure the body snatchers were not still lurking about. Suddenly he stopped. "Bugger!" he shouted. "This isn't the only one. I see a few more over there," he pointed to another area of the cemetery.

"Help me out!" the Doctor shouted up to them.

"How we gonna get him out?" Rose asked, looking at Jack.

Jack scratched his head and poked the edge with foot. "Don't think we should get too close the edge."

"Why don't we tie our scarves together and pull him out?" Mandy suggested.

"Good idea, Velma!" Rose exclaimed.

Jack grinned. "Scooby Doo to the rescue!"

"Naw, it's Rooby Roo to the Rescue," Jake said, walking back and grinning. "He sort of talked with R's"

Rose reached into her pocket and pulled out a candy bar "I even got the Scooby snack," she told them, giggling. Mandy howled at this. They heard the Doctor mutter about being rescued by a bunch of cartoon characters. Jack accepted the treat and winked at her. They tied their scarves together with the Doctor adding his to the end and pulled him out till he was up to the edge and Jake grabbed his hand and dragged him the rest of the way out.

He stood up sniffing and dusted himself off. "Right then, don't think this is grave robbers."

"Whadda ya mean?" Jake asked, shining his light on the dirt encrusted Doctor before flashing it around the grave yard.

"Welll, the coffin was busted from the inside out."

"What like the undead?" Rose asked, cocking her head to the side as she flashed her light back in the hole. Everyone tensed up and scanned the area. The moon came out from behind the clouds and bathed the misty cemetery with an eerie glow.

"I don't like this. We're out here without any weapons and you're saying that reanimated bodies are roaming around," Jack said, shining his light back to the path they took to get there.

"Zombies. Only you would tell us we got bloody zombies," Jake quipped, his eyes darting around nervously.

The Doctor grinned like it was Christmas and all the presents were for him. "Well, don't know about zombies Jakey my boy, but definitely something clawed its way out of that coffin." The Doctor flashed his light over the area where there were signs of other disturbed graves. "Yep, looks like more over there. Could be some type of outbreak that only affects older grave sites. The modern section doesn't seem to be affected and all the graveyards you told us about earlier were historic weren’t they? Well, I say the newer section isn’t affected, but that could mean not affected yet."

"Bloody fantastic!" Jake said, now on alert for an oncoming zombie hoard.

"We have a large collection of manuscripts and texts regarding zombies and reanimation of corpses in the archives," Mandy said pensively.

"Really?" the Doctor asked, excited.

"Oh yes! Everything from Haiti to West African Voodoo. It's believed that a sorcerer, witch or some type of high priest of certain religious cults use a type of witchcraft to bring the dead back to life to do their bidding. Of course, there's also some scientific theory that certain neurotoxins could be administered effectively placing a person in a pharmacologically induced trance . There's also several papers about zombieism as it related to plague victims in the middle ages. Several people theorize that the walking dead were actually people who looked dead but really weren't and were tossed in a body pit. When they woke up it scared the locals who thought they were possessed bodies and killed them thinking they were evil. The word zombie comes from a West Indian word meaning ghost."

The Doctor turned to Rose with a huge grin on his face. "Can we adopt her?"

"Smart chicks are hot! Especially, smart chicks who know all about zombies when we're standing in zombie central," Jack said, winking at Mandy who blushed.

"All right that's enough. Malcolm wouldn‘t be too happy with you doing your flirty thing with our brilliant Mandy," the Doctor warned, and put his arm protectively around Mandy.

Mandy blushed and Rose glared at the Doctor. “Doctor! That’s private between Mandy and Malcolm!”

"All of you shut it! For God sakes were in the middle of a deserted cemetery in the dark of night and there are zombies! Zombies, people!" Jake shouted.

"Uh Jake, might be a good idea to keep it down. Never know when a hungry zombie might be wandering by," Jack said, trying not to laugh.

Jake practically jumped and turned around in a circle holding onto his flashlight.

“Yeah, well unlike some people, I came prepared,” he said, and unzipped his jacket to show everyone a hidden sidearm.

"You're carrying a weapon!" the Doctor shouted in outrage, pulling Mandy and Rose behind him.

"Trouble follows you two and I might remind you of a certain incident with an alien stripper when none of us was armed," Jake explained, and zipped up his jacket.

"Doctor, leave Jake be," Rose said, to prevent the oncoming rant.

The Doctor turned and looked at her and her hand on his shoulder. He placed his hand on hers. "I just want to keep you safe," he said softly.

She smiled and pulled him into her arms. "I'm always safe with you."

"Awww that's so sweet," Mandy whispered, gazing at that them with a soft look in her eyes.

"Uh, guys, we're still in the cemetery which could have zombies creeping around. Annnd, as nice as it is know that Jake is armed, I don’t think that’ll help with stopping the undead. Seems like we’d need something else like a sword to hack them up. Maybe we should finish this back at the house." Jack said to everyone.…

"That's the best bloody idea I've heard all night," Jake said, and started leading the way out of the cemetery.

They made their way quickly out of the old cemetery keeping a constant look out. Luckily they never saw any zombies or anything else for that matter. The moonlight shone intermittently through the clouds providing a spooky backdrop to their trip home and the only movement was the wind blowing through the trees. Once the adrenalin rush of exploration and possible zombie apocalypse was over, they all were huddling together trying to keep warm as they walked back to the mansion.

When the reached the house, Rose stepped in front of them. "All right now, not a word of this to Mum. Jake, you quietly check with Torchwood and find out if anyone's seen anything. The Doctor and Mandy can do some research and I'll talk to Pete."

"You got something in mind for me?" Jack asked, blowing into his hands and rubbing them together.

Rose smiled. "Yeah, keep Mum and Fraunk busy and keep an eye out around the house. The last thing we need is for some zombie or whatever wandering in on the wedding"

Jack nodded. "So, we agree to keep this our little secret then?"

Everyone nodded. "Can we just get inside? It's freezing and we're out of whiskey," Jake said, jumping up and down.  
Rose nodded. "Right let's go then."

When they quietly crept inside, a loud siren sounded. Jake let out a string of curses and looked to Rose. “I thought you shut that thing off!“

“I did! I swear it!”

The Doctor madly soniced the alarm controls until it turned off. Just as they were breathing a sigh of relief, Pete and Jackie raced downstairs with a gun and cricket bat.

“What the ‘ell is goin on here!“ Jackie screamed, holding the cricket bat up and dressed in a short pink baby doll type lingerie, her hair tousled and with a pink and black lace mask holding her hair back. She turned to Pete who was dressed in black satin boxers. “What do you think you’re doing with that gun in my house!” Pete quickly threw on the safety and put it behind his back and then turned sternly to the Scooby gang before him.

“Yeah Pete, weapons in Jackie’s House, not good. Speaking of not good, really you two. You gonna scare off the burglars dressed like that?” the Doctor asked, and shuddered as Rose yanked him close to her and whispered for him to “shut it.”

Jackie narrowed her eyes at the Doctor and then put the bat down with a thud. "You lot are nothing but a bunch of naughty kids out doing mischief. Just look at you! And what is that smell?"

"Well, you see Jackie, there was this rumor about trouble in the cemeteries and we had to..." the Doctor tried to explain…

"I don't want to hear it. Now see here, there's gonna be a wedding in…" she looked at a clock, "thirty six hours. I said no alien stuff and I meant it." She looked pointedly at the Doctor. "Any alien stuff other than you. You, Mister, better be on time and at the end of that aisle to marry my daughter or so help me, your life will be a living hell. And don't think I don't know whose idea this was tonight."

"Yes, but Jackie you see there is a distinct possibility of humpf." Rose put her hand over his mouth before he could continue.

"I'm sorry Mum. We was just having a bit of fun. You know wedding stress and all. Everyone will be dressed and on time. I promise. Right everyone?"

They all loudly agreed and nodded their heads.

"Well what are you standing around here for. It's blooming 2AM! Upstairs the lot of you!" She turned to Pete "As for you, Mr. I-have-a-gun-in-the-house, we are gonna talk about that in the morning," Jackie said, pointing a finger at Pete who backed up a step. He glared at everyone as he ejected the clip from his gun almost symbolically representing what was going to happen in the morning when Jackie decided to "talk" to him.

"You heard her! Upstairs now," Pete sternly said. As he walked away, they heard him muttering about delinquents and pissing off his wife.” The guilty Scooby gang felt pity for him and slowly followed upstairs to quietly sneak off to their various rooms.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You should read The Eternal Adventure first but it's not entirely necessary. Fraunk was introduced in the Eternal Adventure in Chapt 26. More wedding details were discussed in Chapts 31 and 36. Fraunk was based upon the character of the same name in the movie “Father of the Bride.” He speaks with a very odd and pronounced accent. Um, the last 1/3 of this chapt is a bit funny. It might not be a good idea to be drinking anything.

The next morning after breakfast Jackie very sternly told everyone, including Chelsea who had just arrived, there would be no more sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night. They were on the final countdown to the wedding and everyone was expected to be on their best behavior. After she gave her speech, she violently checked something off her clipboard and walked off. Pete finished his tea and stood up to leave. Tony ran over to him and wrapped his arms around Pete’s legs.

Pete knelt down and hugged his son. “Hey now, it’ll be all right, Mrs. Haley’s going to take you out and do fun things while Mummy is running about getting things ready for the wedding.”

Tony looked up at him with innocent eyes. “Daddy, Mummy was blowing a whistle and yelling at people to move their arses.”

“Don’t worry son, we just have to let Mummy alone until she’s got the wedding madness out of her system.” Mrs. Haley walked up. “Mrs. Haley, good timing! Why don’t you and Tony get out while the gettins good.” He leaned over and whispered, “For God’s sake woman take my son and run while you can before my wife come’s in here and assigns you plant fluffing duty or something equally insane.” Mrs. Haley’s eyes widened, she nodded and grabbed Tony and left.

Pete put on his jacket and was about to walk out the door. The Doctor‘s head perked up. "Where are you going?" the Doctor asked. "Doesn't seem fair we're all stuck here and you get to leave," he mumbled.

Pete smiled and picked some invisible lint off his suit. "I'm not the one that went out last night looking for the undead now am I." he said, and leveled a heavy stare at the Doctor.

The Doctor turned to Rose. "You told him already?" Rose smiled and focused on her tea.

"You're seriously asking her that?" Pete asked, shaking his head. "We're about to have over a hundred people here to watch you two tie the knot and you want to ignore the possibility that some corpse or something similar might wander up for a bite? As head of Torchwood, it's my responsibility to look into this and make sure we don't have a massive problem on our hands, even if that means having to abandon Jackie in the midst of her supervising wedding preparations." He straightened his shoulders. "It's a sacrifice I must unfortunately make,” he said, trying to sound regretful but failing miserably.

"That's the biggest load of....."

"Doctor!" Rose interrupted. "Thanks Pete, let us know if you need any help. Uh we'll try and keep an eye on Mum."

"Keep an eye on her?" The Doctor's voice pitched up. "You can hear her from a mile away with that blasted whistle! Did you not hear here this morning when she decided to demand roll call to make sure we were here?" the Doctor asked. Jake choked on his tea.

"Aww come on guys, Jackie just cares. I mean she's got to considering how early she was up this morning" Jack said.

"Just try and stay out of trouble and not irritate her, okay? I don't want to get a call telling’ me you all have raised a zombie army or anything," Pete said. The Doctor perked up at this and grinned as if it was the most brilliant idea he'd ever heard.

Pete stared at him then looked at Rose. "Rose, call me if you need help keeping this lot in line." He smiled at her and escaped, er left.

"Coward," the Doctor murmured, sipping his tea.

"He's bloody brilliant," said Jake, setting his ipad down. "That's why he's the boss." Jake grinned and grabbed his mobile. "Gotta have a conversation with Nelson. His team was out last night looking around the cemeteries. You all have fun with the mad wedding woman." Jake waved to them and took off.

“You went zombie hunting without me!” Chelsea declared, frowning and appearing perturbed to have been excluded from the zombie expedition.

“Well it’s not like we actually found any zombies,” the Doctor muttered in a disappointed tone.

Rose rolled her eyes. “Honestly Chels, we strolled around a cemetery freezing our arses off and the Doctor fell in an open grave. Nothing too exciting.”

“What! We learned that the undead are busting out of their graves. That’s exciting,” the Doctor insisted.

“Shhh, Mum might hear. You don’t know who might be listening!” Rose told him, in a whispered voice.

Chelsea smiled and took a sip of tea. “Well, next time I want in.”

“There’s not gonna be a next time. We’re all on curfew tonight,” Rose explained.

“Curfew?” Chelsea asked. “Is that what Jackie was talking about? Cause you lot went for a hike in the cemetery.” Chelsea shook her head. “How’d she even know.”

“Cause she set the alarm after we left unbeknownst to us so when we came back we set it off and the harridan came downstairs to club us with a cricket bat.” the Doctor explained.

Chelsea choked. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, it was a bit ugly,” Rose acknowledged.

Jack stood up and put his dishes in the sink and winked at some of the catering staff that had arrived early to begin working on the meal to be served after the rehearsal. “Guess I better make the rounds then. If you need anything just call me on my mobile.”

“You have a mobile now?” the Doctor asked surprised.

“Yep! Pete took care of it. The latest model of Iphone plus some extra Torchwood features.”

“Extra features? Let me see!” the Doctor asked, his interest now piqued.

“I dunno, Doc. Last time you asked to see something, it was the telly remote and now every time I hit certain channels, the screen turns blue and this weird voice comes out saying we are all doomed if the banana cabinet is not stocked by sundown.”

“Really,” the Doctor said smirking.

“Doctor!” Rose chastised.

“And you want to marry this nutter?” Chelsea said, looking at Rose with raised eyebrows. “It’s not too late you know. I have teleport and I can get us out of here in a flash.” Chelsea enunciated flash and snapped her fingers.

“You have a teleport!” the Doctor said with excitement.

“Doctor, No!” Rose said, standing up, gathering his dishes with hers taking them to the sink.

“Riiight. I’ll just be out of here then." Jack backed away. "Rose, you have my number. Call if you need anything. I’m gonna walk the grounds and make sure were secure and then catch up with Jackie and Fraunk to check in.” Jack said, and quickly exited the kitchen after protectively tucking his mobile in a pocket.

Mandy walked into the kitchen completely engrossed in her Ipad. “Mandy!” the Doctor called out. Mandy jumped.

“Oh Doctor, good morning.” Mandy replied, walking over and pouring herself some tea.

“And where have you been? Haven’t seen you since Major Matrimony demanded roll call this morning,” the Doctor said, sitting back and propping his trainers on a chair. Rose walked over and knocked his feet down. He looked at her with a pouty expression.

“Oh, I was checking in with Torchwood,” Mandy explained.

“Wouldn’t have been Malcolm now would it?” Chelsea teased.

Mandy blushed and adjusted her glasses. Rose sat down next to her and admired the multicolored knitted scarf Mandy was wearing that was a mix of red, gold, brown and cream colors. “I love that scarf! Is it new?”

“Oh, well it was a Christmas gift,” Mandy answered shyly.

Chelsea, not done teasing Mandy chirped in. “Malcolm gave it to her for Christmas. Can you believe he picked out something that nice?”

Rose turned and glared at Chelsea. Chelsea sighed. “I mean nice considering he’s all Mr. science geek who never leaves his lab,” she said, defending herself.

“Oi! What’s wrong with that!” the Doctor exclaimed, a bit offended.

“Nothing, love. I think being all smart and geeky is a bit of a turn on,” Rose teased.

“All right, that’s enough,” Chelsea declared, standing up and setting her dishes aside. “Rose, we have to meet with Fraunk and Commander Jackie. Let’s just go and get it over with. She handed me a bloody agenda this morning when I walked in the door and…” Before Chelsea could finish, both hers and Rose’s phones started beeping. They looked down and Mandy groaned and stared at Rose with incredulity. “She’s bloody well beeping us with reminders, Rose!”

The Doctor snickered and pretended to be busy looking at Mandy’s Ipad. Rose squinted her eyes at him and almost snorted in disgust. “Sorry Chels. She’s a bit out of her mind today. Better go and calm her down before the wedding staff revolt.”

“Fine, whatever. We meet with the mad wedding woman and then we sneak off for a nip of something in Pete’s private reserve or I will go barmy today,” Chelsea said, and almost violently shoved her mobile back into her jeans.

“Doctor, you and Mandy all right then?” Rose asked, as she walked out with Chelsea.

“Absolutely!” he said and turned to Mandy. “So, Mandy, you ready to get started with our _you know what_ research?”

Mandy nodded enthusiastically and they both dashed away from the kitchen to hide out in the library and stay out of wedding preparations and more importantly, avoid the mad mother of the bride.

The rest of the day was filled with people running to and fro carrying floral arrangements, chairs and wedding decorations. The air was filled with Fraunk's declarations of "Fabolous" or "Jaynus, ess to die for!" along with the piercing whistle blown by Jackie usually followed with "Not there" or "Fraauuunnk!" Rose and Chelsea tried to avoid as much as possible but were soon shanghaied by Jackie to help direct the caterers for the rehearsal dinner that night.

Jake and Jack were patrolling the grounds on the look out for "paparazzi" which is what they told Jackie. In reality, it was something a bit more zombieish. The Doctor and Mandy had holed themselves up in the library where the Doctor had soniced the door locked so they couldn't be disturbed. They spent hours reading the contents of the Torchwood archive's zombie section only being interrupted when Rose snuck away and brought them lunch.

When it came time to prepare for the rehearsal, the Doctor arrived in their room to find all of his things gone. After walking out of the closet cursing, he came face to face with Jackie with her arms crossed in clear warrior mode. He stopped five feet away from her and they stared at each other in some Jackie-Doctor version of the stand off at the O.K. Corral. Finally, Jackie broke the stare down.

"I've moved your things to the East wing. You can get ready there. It's tradition to not see the bride before the wedding and I don't want to hear any of your whinging about it. Jack and Jake are already over there.

The Doctor, standing tall in an intimidating Time Lordy manor, finally responded. "You know Jackie, might have been nice if you'd asked me first. How do you know I didn’t have something delicate in there or you know..." he explained, not finishing his sentence which he knew would drive her mad.

She smiled sweetly at him. "That's why I asked Jack to take care of it. Now then, off you go. I have to help Rose get ready and then see to Pete."

Knowing he was defeated, the Doctor sighed and headed toward the door. He paused at the doorway and turned to look at Jackie. "Oh, and Jackie, don‘t worry about the sound system. I fixed it,” he said with a mischievous grin and tossing his sonic up in the air.

Jackie's response was a terse, "Out!"

After dressing in the new dark sapphire blue suit that Fraunk and Jack convinced him to wear for the wedding rehearsal, the Doctor spent some time pacing and whinging about why they had to do this twice and wasn’t once enough. Jack and Jake looked at each other and rolled their eyes. They dragged the Doctor down to the library where Pete was talking on his mobile and nudged a bottle of wine over to them. Jack poured them each a glass while listening to Pete order more teams into the field to inspect three more cemetery disturbances. He rang off and downed the rest of his wine. He looked over at the Doctor.

“Have you and Mandy made any progress about what could cause this whole bodies rising from the grave business?”

The Doctor examined the wine in his glass. “Oh I dunno, my impending marriage? Your wife’s obsession with wedding procedures...” he said, not finishing as he took a sip of wine, swirled it around his mouth and swallowed. “Carmenare, Pelequen, Chile, 2007. Excellent year.”

“Doctor,” Pete growled.

“Oh fine, so it’s not Jackie’s unhealthy and relentless determination to hold the perfect wedding leaking into the soil. I think it might be a result of an excessive amount of Kastac radiation that struck the planet about five days ago.”

“Kastac radiation? What’s that?” Pete asked rubbing his hand through his short red hair.

“Oh, you lot haven’t discovered it yet. Normally, it’s nothing but I think that it might be reacting with a component of what’s used to embalm your dead. You seem to use some mineral particular to this Earth that isn‘t found in our Universe.”

“So it reanimates the dead?” Pete asked with disbelief.

“Not exactly. You see Kastac radiation can react to and mutate certain bacteria. Now humans tend to treat their corpses with a particular chemical cocktail to slow down the natural decomposition.” The Doctor, now in full fledged lecture mode, began pacing. 

“Although this embalming method does slow decomposition, there are still bacteria living in the corpse. The reaction of the Kastac radiation with the elements in the embalming fluid provide a unique environment that promotes a certain mutated bacteria to grow and evolve until it reanimates the corpse. Unfortunately for us, this mutated bacteria requires certain nutrients to continue it’s life cycle. If our research is correct, and I must say, this is totally theoretical, the nutrients it requires are only found in living flesh. Thus, we may have a hoard of very hungry flesh eating zombies wandering around the countryside and London,” the Doctor explained, and downed his wine setting the glass down with a clink.

“You’re sure about this,” Pete asked calmly.

“Wellll, we could be off. I mean, it’s not like we had one of the undead fellows to examine,” the Doctor replied

“How come we haven’t seen any of these undead blokes walking about trying to eat people,” Jake asked.

“Yeah, you’d think there’d be at least more sightings of decomposing corpses wandering around,” Jack added. “People tend to notice stuff like that.”

“Oh, they’ll probably go for the easier prey first, rodents, cats, dogs, you know small stuff. They also might be avoiding the light or sticking to dark areas. Remember, all this evolved underground so it could be they thrive in low light conditions. I’m sure it won’t be long before they find small species are not meeting their nutritional requirements and they seek out something a bit more, well for lack of a better word, meatier,” the Doctor explained, wincing.

Pete reached for a bottle of whiskey he had tucked away behind some books and poured a shot. He downed it and turned to the Doctor. “You know how terrifying and loony that sounds?”

“Oh yes, I’m not exactly looking forward to the hungry zombie part either.”

“Meatier!” Jake exclaimed, now looking nervously at the windows. Jack came over and stood next to him at that window and whispered something into his ear. Jake grinned and clinked glasses with him. The Doctor narrowed his eyes at them.

Pete stared thoughtfully at the bottle of Whiskey and turned back to the Doctor. “You know how long we have before we get to the people eating stage?”

“Welll, it’s a bit hard to tell. Might depend on the rate of growth and mutations of the bacteria. Could be 24 to 48 hours, maybe more or maybe less,” the Doctor said, shrugging.

“Bloody hell,” Pete murmured. “How do we stop it?”

“Ah yes, well Mandy and I have been working on that. So far, I’d say hacking them to pieces and burning the bits would be best until we can get a sample and formulate a counter measure.”

Pete walked over to his desk and sank into his leather executive chair and punched a number into his mobile. He set up a conference with his agents explaining the situation and put Torchwood on high alert, increasing patrols around the city and arming all agents with flame throwers. About the time he finished, Fraunk knocked on the door to announce they were ready to begin the rehearsal.

The wedding was scheduled for the next afternoon and would be held in the garden which had been completely renovated by Fraunk and his designers. Post wedding cocktails would be served in the house with the reception itself in the garden and in some of the most elaborate white tents Fraunk could find. The feel of the tents would be quite posh with chandeliers, a special mahogany colored floor, breathtaking flower arrangements and lighting to set the mood.

Fraunk led the Doctor and Jake to an area in front of numerous chairs. The Doctor found himself prodded to stand on a dais next to Jake in front of row after row of white chairs. The officiate, who was a friend of Pete's, walked up and introduced himself to the Doctor.

"You must be Dr. Smith, I'm Reverend Mills," Rev. Mills said, shaking the Doctor's hand.

"Reverend, good to meet you. Pete tells me you two have known each other for quite some time," the Doctor said, as he shuffled from foot to foot, his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Pete and I go way back. I remember when he and Jackie first met. Quite a woman. Such a fiery spirit. It's good to see her settled and happy. For all the damage Lumic and the Cybermen did, at least it brought Pete and Jackie closer. And, then of course there's Rose. The Tyler genes run strong in her. She's so much like her mother and father even though she wasn't raised by them," he told the Doctor and then he leaned in closer. "Course, she seems to avoided the screeching Prentiss genes," he said with a wink. "You're a lucky man."

The Doctor grinned. This Reverend Mills was all right he decided.

Soon Fraunk flounced in with a huge grin plastered to his face. "There he is! Our hauntsome grome! Oh, and the bast moan! Both of you look fabolous!"

The Doctor grinned and his eyes sparkled as he looked at Jake whose face scrunched up in confusion. "Bast moan are ya, Jakey!" the Doctor said, and nudged him.

Jake looked at him and glared. "Better than a grome whatever the hell that is," he whispered back.

"Now than, all the loafly wadding gasts wall bay seated over hair," Fraunk explained motioning to the chairs. 

"Once all the gasts are hair, you and the bast moan will walk out and stand next to the fairy stoylish Reverend Malls. Next, we wall half the loafly musack playing and than," Fraunk said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. "The mauthar off the bride wall bay escorted to her sate right hair," Fraunk said, pointing to where Jackie would sit. "And than, the bridesmaids wall jauntly glide down the owl and stand hair, “Fraunk explained and pointed to where Mandy and Chelsea would stand. “Next, the littlest Tyler wall carry the ring to the bast moan. Finally, the elegaunt bride wall march down the owl with her most hauntsome father. Any questions?"

The Doctor was about to raise his hand when Jake grabbed him. "Don't you dare. Let's just get this done," Jake insisted, gripping the Doctor's arm.

The Doctor leaned over to Jake. “But their gliding down the owl, Jake. Can you imagine. That poor bird!” the Doctor said, nudging Jake who had to turn away since he was about ready to roll on the floor with laughter. Finally, he straightened up and punched the Doctor in the arm.

“The Doctor rubbed his arm, still grinning from all the Fraunk talk and calmed himself. “Well Fraunk, I think we got!"

"Fabolous!" Fraunk exclaimed. "I thank we our rowdy to began." Fraunk flounced away while the Reverend tried not to chuckle.

The Doctor looked at him. "My good Rev. Mills, this is gonna be one wedding you are never gonna forget," the Doctor promised.

Jack walked Jackie down the aisle. She was dressed in a light blue long sleeved knee length silk dress with matching pumps, tears glistening in her eyes. Her hair was stylishly arranged in an updo with white flowers pinned in and she wore a strand of pink pearls draping elegantly about her neck setting off the intricate plunging rounded neckline of her dress. After Jack had escorted her to her seat, he walked over to stand next to Jake and winked at the Doctor. 

Mandy and Chelsea soon followed and then Tony with his fair hair slicked back and wearing a navy blazer, white dress shirt and khaki’s looking like a mini version of his father. He raced up to Jake who ruffled his head. Soon, Pete and Rose walked out to the end of the aisle. Rose was dressed in a long sleeved sapphire blue sweater dress with draped cowl neckline which emphasized her curves. The Doctor grinned even wider if that was possible, that is, until he noticed how pale she looked. She walked slowly beside Pete, wobbling a bit in the matching blue pumps Jackie had insisted she wear. The Doctor grabbed her arm the minute she was within reach and steadied her.

He psychically asked her if she was okay. She nodded and they turned to the reverend. The rehearsal went fine except for the Doctor adamantly refusing to say his vows until their wedding day. Jackie was about to chastise the Doctor when he looked at Rose with such adoration and explained.

"When I make my vows to Rose, I want it to be for her from me. I don't need to practice making my promise of forever." Rose teared up right before she collapsed against him. The last thing she heard was the Doctor shout, "Rose!"

When Rose opened her eyes she was laying on a sofa with the Doctor kneeling beside her looking concerned and Jackie hovering over demanding that everyone giver her some air as she handed the Doctor a cold compress.

"What happened?" she asked, as the Doctor pressed the compress to her neck.

"You fainted. How do you feel?" he asked with concern.

"Embarrassed and a bit nauseous," she told him.

"Oh sweetheart, I'm sorry. Maybe it was too much today. What you need is a hot meal and some rest. You'll be right as rain tomorrow," Jackie said, concern lacing her voice.

Rose smiled and slowly sat up, holding onto the Doctor. "Easy now," he whispered. Chelsea walked over with a glass of water for her to sip while Mandy hovered nervously next to Pete.

"Thanks, Chels. Sorry about that everyone. Did I miss anything?" she asked jokingly.

"Yeah, the bride took one look at the groom and took a header," Jake quipped. Rose smiled but still looked quite pale.

"All right everyone, why don't you go on to dinner. Rose and I will be in shortly," the Doctor announced.

Everyone started to disagree. "The Doctor's right. I'm fine and Mum and Fraunk have arranged this lovely meal so go on then. I promise, I'll be there in a bit," Rose assured everyone.

"The bride has spoken everyone. Let's give her and the Doc some space," Jack announced, starting to shoo everyone out of the room. He paused at the door and gave the Doctor a serious look. The Doctor nodded and Jack left closing the door behind him.

The Doctor pulled out what looked like a pink piece of candy and handed it to her. She looked at it sitting in his hand. "What's that?"

"It's a nutritional supplement for you. It's cherry flavored. Go on chew," he directed her. She hesitantly took the candy and popped into her mouth.

"Mmmm that's good!" she exclaimed.

"Welll of course it is! I'm not gonna give you something that tastes like Foglroan swamp slime," he said.

Rose smiled. "Thank you. I'm feeling a bit better already. I don't know what came over me today. I've been doing so good lately."

"Your body's going through lots of changes and its still adjusting. You haven't been eating properly and your loony Mum has been running you ragged. After tomorrow, it's food and rest for you under the brilliant care of your Doctor." he said, smiling and tucking some hair behind her ear.

"Sounds wonderful," she said, and pressed his hand to her cheek and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and stood up. "Shall we?" she said holding her hand out.

"I suppose we have to," he mumbled miserably. They walked into the dining room where Fraunk immediately walked over and took her other arm.

“My loafly bride, don't you wary about a thing. It ess not uncommon for brides to become overwallmed by the emultions of a wadding. You will be fabolous tomorrow," Fraunk assured her.

Dinner went quite quickly after everyone was assured Rose was fine and encouraged her to eat. Jackie watched her like a hawk, not letting her leave the table until she was sure Rose had eaten whatever she deemed sufficient. After dessert when Fraunk excused himself to oversee last minute details and after everyone had finished after dinner drinks, Jackie started tugging Rose from the room to send her upstairs.

Jackie turned to the Doctor. "Well, go on, say goodnight. You won't be seeing her until she walks down that aisle tomorrow afternoon."

The Doctor, with a pouting face, walked up to Rose and pulled her away from curious eyes. He rested his forehead against hers. "If you need anything, let me know. I don't want you suffering cause of some stupid Earth nuptial custom," he whispered to her.

"I promise. I'll miss you tonight. Call me later, yeah." she whispered. He smiled and they snogged until Jackie loudly cleared her throat. The Doctor looked over and glared at her as Rose walked upstairs.

Jackie walked over to him. "I know you think this is a rubbish custom and honestly you two have practically been married for ages now. So, I just want to say, thank you for doing this. I know this isn't easy for you," she told him softly. She stopped for a moment and looked him in the eye. "You've been a son to me for ages now, wedding or no. I just want to do this for you and Rose. I want you to have this special moment where everyone can celebrate the two of you. Where we can..." she paused again becoming choked up. "We can be a family and have a party to celebrate that we have each other."

The Doctor pulled Jackie into an embrace. They hugged each other and when they pulled back Jackie was smiling at him. "Right then, you know the rules now. No seeing her until tomorrow," Jackie firmly told him.

He smiled. "Right," he said backing away. He paused and turned around as Jackie was following Rose up the stairs. "Unless of course, there's an invasion or I dunno, crashing space ships or the undead rise form the grave. Then, I may have to break that rule," he said with a naughty grin. She shook her head and proceeded upstairs muttering about her son-in-law the nutter.

After everyone had retired to their rooms, the Doctor started to pace, not the least bit tired and feeling like a caged lion. He focused on Rose.

Rose, who was equally fidgety, sat in her room playing cards with Chelsea and losing badly while Mandy sat next to her tapping away on her Ipad. She smiled when she felt the Doctor popping around at the periphery of her mind trying to get her attention.

"Rose, are you awake," he mentally called out to her.

"Yeah, just sittinj in my room with Chels and Mandy playing cards," she thought back to him.

"Soooo you wouldn't be up for, I dunno a secret tryst in the wine cellar," he thought to her and followed it with thoughts of snogging and stray thoughts of bananas.

Rose giggled and Chelsea looked at her. "Something funny?" Chelsea asked.

"Oh, the Doctor was sending me a telepathic message. He wants to know if I can sneak off and meet him for a secret meeting," Rose explained.

"Roooose, don't tell anyone. It's suppose to be a secret," he mentally whinged. Rose rolled her eyes.

Chelsea huffed. "Well, go on share! What's he got in mind? I'm bored and you're rubbish at cards. Ohhh is this some secret zombie meeting?" Chelsea asked her eyes alight with excitement. This caught Mandy's attention and she set down her Ipad.

"I thought Jackie said we couldn't leave the house?" Mandy asked, looking at Rose her eyes twinkling to find out what was going on.

The Doctor mentally sighed. "Oh fine, they can come. Suppose we could make it a bit of a zombie preparedness bridal party meeting. After all, when the zombie apocalypse comes, who you gonna call?" he thought to her smirking.

Rose grinned and relayed the message. They agreed to meet him in the wine cellar. Rose warned him to be quiet as Jackie could be walking the house anticipating they would try something. When Jackie had left Rose earlier that evening, she looked around the room suspiciously before saying good night.

Rose, dressed in a pink t-shirt emblazoned with "Bride" in sparkly rhinestones with pink plaid jim jam bottoms which Jackie had given her, slipped on her Tardis blue slippers while Mandy in in her green jim jams with aliens imprinted on them and Chelsea in her black jim jams did likewise. They quietly crept up to the door. Chelsea listened at the door and turned to Rose with a thumbs up sign. They turned off the lights and cracked the door to look at the darkened and quiet hallway. Carefully they slipped out of the room, taking care to shut the door behind them as they snuck toward the stairs.

Meanwhile, the Doctor was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement to sneak out and see Rose. He looked in a mirror, fussed with his hair, straightened his tie and walked quietly to the door. He cracked it open only find Jack and Jake standing there with a bottle of some nefarious alien liquor and some glasses in their arms. Jack turned to Jake who had a very satisfied look on his face.

"Pay up," Jake said with glee.

"What, cause he opened the door?" Jack shot back.

"Oh come on! You know he was doing a runner!" Jake retorted.

"Oi! I was not leaving Rose," the Doctor said and lowered his voice a notch even though they were on the opposite side of the house from Jackie. "I was takinf a stroll downstairs is all."

"Right," Jake said unconvinced.

"And if you happened to stroll by a certain blonde's room, more the better eh Doc," Jack teased.

"Certainly not! Jackie's probably got the place wired. She'd know," he said, looking down the hall as if he expected her to jump out at him.

"Okay, so we're strolling to where then?" Jack asked.

"The wine cellar," the Doctor explained.

Jake shook his head. "All right, let's go have a drink toasting your last night of freedom then."

"Ooooo we need nibbles," the Doctor declared. "You two go raid the kitchen and see if you can find snacks and maybe a bit of that chocolate fudge cake we had after dinner tonight."

"Are you serious?" Jake groaned.

"Come on Jake. He wants to go get in trouble all by himself. We'll make a snack run and meet him down in the cellar," Jack announced queitly and then snuck down the hall with Jake. He stopped and called back to the Doctor, "Oh Doc, we don't see you in thirty minutes, we're coming looking and I can't promise you we'll be quiet about it." The two groomsmen took their liquor and padded down the hall quietly laughing.

**************************

Rose, Mandy and Chelsea utilized their Torchwood training and stealthily moved down the hall. They all stopped dead still when they heard a noise and immediately plastered themselves flat against a wall. Rose was on point and when she was sure it was safe to proceed, gave an all clear signal. The group continued, stopping periodically to listen for any signs of Jackie or anyone who would sound the alarm that the bridal party was on the prowl. When they reached the stairs, they heard a door and some clinking noises and three ducked down into a squat on the stairs. Slowly, they crawled down the stairs and ducked into the sitting room practically diving behind some chairs.

Jack and Jake were raiding the refrigerator looking for the cake and grabbing anything that struck their fancy like cheese and olives. They had just peeked into the pantry when they heard a noise and stopped dead still.

“Shit, it’s coming from the stairs,” Jake whispered.

“Maybe it’s the Doc,” Jack whispered back.

“I don’t think so, he’d be noisier,” Jake answered. They grabbed their nibbles and ducked under a table. Jake looked at Jack. “Where’s the liquor?” he mouthed.

Jack looked down and swore. He peeked out from under the table and back at Jake and held up a finger. He dashed out grabbed the bottle and slid back under the table. The two sat their for a bit before deciding the coast was clear and finished packing up their goods and headed toward the wine cellar.

The Doctor waited a few minutes before following Jack and Jake down. He took his time. When he heard footsteps at the other end of the hall, he ducked into a closet closing the door but leaving it open a crack. He heard a creak as if someone was creeping down the stairs. It occurred to him that it might be Rose, Mandy and Chelsea so he stepped out of the closet and slowly made his way to the stairs. He could see moonlight shining into the darkened house and ducked down just as he watched several darkened figures scamper across the first floor. He grinned wondering if it was his bride and her accomplices.

He continued his trek down the stairs, quietly cursing when one of the stairs squeaked. He stopped and flattened himself against a wall when he thought he heard someone whisper a curse word. He was sure that the whispering voice was male and didn’t sound like Jack or Jake. This immediately put him on alert and he grabbed his sonic.

As the Doctor crept away from the stairs, he heard another creaking sound and stopped. He peered through the dark. He heard some scuffling, whispering and a click. He scratched his head with the sonic as he tried to determine what or who he was hearing. It occurred to him there was definitely more than one person sneaking around downstairs tonight. He continued on his way ducking behind furniture occasionally until he finally reached the door to the wine cellar. He looked around and then opened it. Of course, it squeaked. He muttered under his breath about sonicing door hinges and made his way down the dark stairs, the sonic lighting his way to the even darker wine cellar. He slowed his pace. As he stood on the stairs gazing through the darkness he sniffed.

“Rose?” he whispered into the dark. Then the giggling started and several oil lanterns were lit as Rose walked out in her pink jim jams. He grinned brightly and ran up to her for a hug. He looked at her jim jams and laughed. “Guess we know who the bride is,” he said with cheek.

“Hey Doc, over here. We found the cake,” Jack said, as he took a shot of the alien gin. The Doctor and Rose walked over where everyone was gathered in a corner behind some wine racks. The Doctor dragged over a crate and wrapped his coat around Rose as he shared some cake with her. They talked about the zombie issue and Mandy informed everyone that Malcolm and taken some scrapings from some of the grave sites and believed he had a good sample of the bacteria. The Doctor was envious. Jake and Jack promised Rose they had taken care of security around the mansion. Before she could respond, they heard the door to the wine cellar open. They shut off the oil lamps and scrambled for a hiding place.

The Doctor, most gallantly placed himself in front of Rose who was scrunched behind a rack of dusty bottles. She looked up and grinned at him and mouthed, “My hero.” He winked at her. A dark figure descended the stairs and stopped. The naughty group of zombie obsessed wedding partiers held their collective breathes. All of sudden, the lights turned on . The Doctor jumped out with his sonic before him yelling “Ha!”

Pete jumped back after shouting out “Fuck!” and grabbing a bottle off a rack and holding it up like a club. He looked at the Doctor and the Doctor looked at him dressed in his navy blue jim jams. He put the wine bottle down and the Doctor lowered the sonic and smirked a bit.

“Hello Pete!” he greeted.

“Doctor, there some reason you’re lurking down here in my wine cellar,” he asked, sounding annoyed. Just then, Jake started laughing and Pete looked over toward where he was hiding. Jack gave Jake a shove and Jake stumbled out and landed on his knees still laughing. He looked up at Pete and all giggling disappeared.

“Uh Pete, we were just…..” Jake tried to explain. Jack walked out followed by Mandy, Chelsea and finally Rose. Pete looked at each of them and shook his head.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised,” Pete said with a sigh.

“It’s all the Doctor’s fault,” Chelsea informed him, arms crossed and glaring at the Doctor.

“What? How’s it my fault?” the Doctor asked.

“It was your idea to come down here for a little secret meeting,” Chelsea reminded him.

Jack handed Pete a glass of the alien gin. Pete sniffed it and took a sip and inhaled sharply. He lifted the glass up toward Jack in a silent toast.

“Right, well you lot. Whatever you were doing, you’re done now. Rose, it’s almost midnight and if your Mum catches you and the Doctor down here together, everyone pays the price.”

“Right, I’m sorry Pete. It was sort of our last hurrah. We’ll head up. Rose turned to the Doctor, hugged him and gave him a chaste kiss. “Think that’ll hold you over till tomorrow afternoon?”

“Never,” he promised her, and kissed her properly. All of a sudden the door squeaked. Everyone froze and then ran to hide in a panic leaving Pete standing abandoned in the wine cellar holding a glass of alien gin with the bottle sitting next to him. Jackie Tyler, wrapped in a big fluffy pink robe with her hair pinned up stomped down the stairs and glared at Pete.

“Pete Tyler! What in ‘ell do you think you’re doin!” Jackie shouted. 

She walked over and picked up the bottle which had alien writing on it. “This, this is some of that alien liquor isn’t it. You snuck down here to sneak shots of some alien alcohol on the night before our daughter’s wedding!” Jackie shouted, grabbed the bottle and walked over to sink where she dumped the whole bottle down the drain. Pete stared at the drink in his hand and wondered where it had all gone wrong. He then glared at a corner where he knew Jake and Jack were hiding.

He quickly downed the contents of his glass. Jackie stood in front of him, hands on her hips. We’ve got enough to do in the morning without you,” Jackie poked him in the chest to make her point. “Recovering from some alien hangover. Upstairs now! Pete sighed and mumbled, “Yes dear.” He walked up the stairs after Jackie slamming the door a bit behind him.

The Doctor, Rose and their naughty friends slowly crept out. They waited a bit before sneaking back up the stairs. The Doctor soniced the hinges to the door so it would open without squeaking. At the bottom of the stairs, they all said good night to each other. Some giggled, others groaned over the loss of good alien gin while two people who were about to be married stared at each other in obvious love. Little did they all know that the next day would be one of the most exciting and memorable days in their lives and not for the obvious reason.


	4. Chapter 4

The morning of the wedding, Jackie and Rose shared a heartfelt breakfast in Rose’s room. They reminisced about how different things are now from their days on the Estate as well as all the friends and family they left behind. Tony ran into the room and up to Rose where he threw his arms around her. Jackie looked at her two children and knew, without a doubt, that although they had left so many people behind in the other universe, she wouldn’t trade what she had there for anything.

Jackie’s mobile rang playing the wedding march, which had both Rose and Tony giggling. She looked up at Rose. "I'm sorry ,sweetheart, I have to go meet with Fraunk about last minute details. Do you mind looking after Tony for a bit? Mrs. Haley should be by shortly, and Mandy and Chelsea will be here in bit as well. It won’t be long before the stylists and assistants show up to help you girls get ready.”

“I’d love to watch Tony, and Mum, thanks.” Rose hugged her tight. She then turned to Tony and asked if he wanted to play a game of cards while they waited. After Rose lost a game of Go Fish to Tony, Mrs. Haley arrived to keep him occupied and get him ready for the wedding. As they walked out, Chelsea and Mandy arrived.

“Morning, Chels, Mandy. Have you had anything to eat?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, Commander Jackie took care of us,” Chelsea told her as she plopped down in a chair in the sitting area and poured herself some tea. Mandy followed her and sat down by Rose and reached for some strawberries that were sitting next to the tea pot.

"You know, your mum could seriously lead an army the way she has this whole wedding thing organized. God help anyone who mucks up today." Mandy shook her head. "And we're confined to quarters until further notice." Chelsea propped her slipper clad feet on a table in front of her. "She wouldn't even let me bring my bag. Said something about not trusting me to bring half of Torchwood with me. Can you believe that?" she said, turning to Rose.

"Yeah, sorry about that. She doesn't want the Doctor and me to see each other so guess we're all stuck here and well, she‘s sort of put a restriction on anything Torchwood in the house."

Mandy pulled out her Ipad which she had hidden in her robe. Chelsea perked up. "How'd you get that by inspection?" she asked, a bit perturbed.

As she adjusted her glasses, Mandy looked up at Chelsea. "I just have one of those faces people trust."

"Well that's rubbish! I have a face people trust don't I Rose?" Chelsea demanded, looking at Rose.

Rose smiled. "Chels love, you've got ‘I'm from Torchwood get out of may way so I can blow up the aliens written all over you. Sides, Mum knows you hate this stuff. She half expects us to pull a runner."

Mandy giggled and Chelsea rolled her eyes. "Well, I s'pose Commander Jackie means well. Still, what we s'pose to do? Sit here and gossip like a bunch school girls?" Chelsea asked.

Mandy logged into Torchwood and handed her Ipad over to Chelsea. "Here, Chels, these are the latest reports on the cemetery outbreak."

Chelsea sat up and smiled. "Trust the geeky mistress of the archives to save the day," she said and began poring over the latest reports.

Mandy turned to Rose. "Rose, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what's on your mind?"

"I know you told us that you met the Doctor in your original universe and how you got separated and this new Doctor came back with you, but.... When did you know that, well that he was the one?" Mandy asked shyly. Chelsea snorted.

Rose smiled. "It's a bit complicated. I mean, I think it really hit me with my first Doctor."

"Is that the one who was all tall, angry and leather," Chelsea asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, he had a real tough exterior then," Rose curled up in her chair. "He'd been through so much. Him and me though, we just sort of got each other," Rose explained, staring at her tea deep in thought.

"But you knew when you were with him then?" Mandy asked, playing with her mass of brown curly hair currently held in a ponytail.

Rose looked up and smiled. "It was in 1941 during a bomb raid. We were facing off against these gas mask zombie things. They were people that had been changed by these Nanogenes which were tiny microscopic robots. We were locked in the basement of this old hospital hiding from them and he was trying to find a way out for us. He was resonating concrete," Rose said dreamily.

"Resonating concrete! How romantic," Chelsea scoffed, tucking her long black hair behind her ears.

"It was!" Rose declared. "We talked about dancing and that's when I knew. Glenn Miller was playing on the radio and we were holding each other and he just looked me in the eyes and I realized that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him -- this crazy nine hundred year old alien."

"You didn't care that he was an entirely different species?" Chelsea asked, now focused on Rose.

"You know, I didn't even think about it. I just knew that I felt something deep inside. I mean we'd already been through so much together. There's nothing like facing the end of the world and evil whatevers to show ya how you really feel about someone.”

"Mickey was still around then wasn't he? How'd that work then?" Chelsea asked, face now planted in her palm.

"Chels!" Mandy chastised.

"No, it's okay, Mandy. Mickey and I were sort of done around that time. We just never really said it and part of that was my fault. It was like I couldn't say it. I knew I cared for the Doctor but I couldn't say it out loud. I thought the universe would implode or something. I still cared for Mickey and didn't want to hurt him and I dunno, I just couldn't. It was wrong and I knew it. Not my finest decision. I mucked it up pretty good." Rose paused looking off to the side thinking about Mickey in the other universe before she continued.

"Mickey knew though," she said softly, twisting a few strands of hair around her finger. "He hated it, hated the Doctor for a bit too. In the end, the Doctor helped him see how strong and brilliant he was. Mick knew he was better and when we fell into this world, well he saw a chance to make a change and be the man he knew he was. He stayed here when the Doctor and I left. Look what all he did for Torchwood," Rose said, again staring out at nothing. 

"I miss him you know. He was my best friend and was always there for me, even here. Even when I was so focused on getting back to the Doctor, he never left my side. I should've told him how much he meant and now it's too late." Rose teared up, a single tear falling down her face. "He should be here. He's not and I... Oh, gawd, I hope he's okay. I hope he's happy. He deserves it," she whispered, sniffing and reaching for a tissue.

"Hey now, enough of that," Chelsea said, setting the Ipad aside. "Mickey'd be happy for you. He wanted you to be happy and safe and I should know. He and me threw a few pints back while you were obssessing over that dimension cannon with Malcolm." Chelsea told her, now kneeling beside her.

Rose smiled at her. "Should've guessed. You two had lots of fun hunting those flying alien lizard things didn't ya. Did you know he was gonna stay in the other universe?" Rose asked.

"Yeah. He was ready to go home. I think he knew once you found your Doctor, you'd be all right. He wanted to find the same kind of happiness you had with your Doctor." She patted Rose's knee. "Now then, that's enough tears. This is a wedding. If Commander Jackie saw this, Mandy and me would be in heaps of trouble. Sides, you haven‘t finished telling us this great romantic story about you and the annoying alien your about to marry."

Rose smiled and leaned over to hug her. "Thanks Chels. So, you know I got separated from him and then I found him again and he split himself in two." Chelsea rolled her eyes while Mandy leaned forward. "Suddenly, I had this Doctor who was the Doctor and yet just a bit different. It was a bit difficult for me to take in and well we had been separated for years. We moved in together and had a huge row." She paused and bit her thumbnail. 

"We said horrible things to each and he said he was leaving and I told him he should. It was worse than when we were in separate universes. When he was gone, I felt like the universe had collapsed. I knew it was partly my fault and thought I had lost the best thing that ever happened to me. He came back three days later and we just clung to each other. That's the first time we really talked about us, the two of us and what we wanted and needed together. I knew without a doubt that I never wanted to be apart from him again. I never hesitated to tell him how much I loved him after that and neither did he. It's like that song says, he's my everything."

"Oh, Rose, that is the most romantic story ever. I mean, it‘s like right out of one of Kathryn Otile‘s Earth Defense series," Mandy declared.

Chelsea groaned and then started giggling. “Hear that Rose, your life is a freaking paranormal romance novel!” she shouted, in hysterics. Rose’s face scrunched up in disbelief. Luckily, the cosmetologists and nail technicians arrival interrupted further comparison of Rose’s love life to smutty pulp fiction.

While Rose and her bridesmaids were chatting and meeting with the stylists in preparation for the wedding, the Doctor was downstairs in the library with Jack and Jake bored out of his mind.

"But why do we have to stay here?" he whinged, as he paced back and forth, picking up a book, paging through it before tossing it aside.

"Cause Jackie'll kill us if we don't stay out of the way," Jake said, wincing and taking a sip of the strong coffee Jack brought him. Apparently, even the small amount of alien gin the two had shared the prior night had a much stronger after effect than either of them anticipated.

"How come Jack can leave then?" the Doctor pointed out.

Jack smiled. "Jackie loves and trusts me," he told him, smirking.

"Oi! I'm about to be her son-in-law, that means she loves and trusts...." he said, but didn't finish as it sank in that he was about to be Jackie Tyler's son-in-law. He looked up with fearful eyes. "I'm gonna be Jackie Tyler's...." Again, he couldn't finish. He shuddered. "You know I've faced some of the most gruesome, terrifying and insane creatures trying to take over the universe or commit mass murder, but none of them compare to the thought of.." Before he could finish, Jackie entered the room. She looked at him dressed in his brown pinstripe suit and trainers.

"You need to start getting ready in about an hour. I want you ready early so Fraunk can make sure you look all right," Jackie said.

"What! What do you mean, so Fraunk can make sure I look all right," the Doctor said with attitude.

Jackie glared and crossed her arms. "I mean it. You're not gonna pull some last minute thing and claim you can't wear the tux. A lot of people have put effort into this and you're not gonna muck it up over some weird alien fashion sense."

"Don't worry, Jackie. He'll be fine," Jack assured her. "Hey, speaking of fine, you know we‘re not gonna be that way for long cooped up in here with the cranky Time Lord. Do you mind if we take a walk? I promise, I'll keep this one over here from interfering with the wedding prep," Jack asked, pointing to the Doctor and flashing her his most charming smile.

She sighed. "I s'pose if you and Jake keep an eye on him. If he gets into any trouble, I'll be looking for the two of you," Jackie said, pointing to Jack and Jake. She started to leave and she turned around. "You boys remember there will be hell to pay if he sees Rose or starts some alien stuff." Jackie's mobile rang. She looked at it, frowned and screamed, "Fraunk!" as she left them staring at her back.

Jake walked up and slapped the Doctor on the back. "Mate, that's your mother-in-law who just walked out of here screaming. You sure you don't want a drink?"

The Doctor paled and stared at Jake with fear in his eyes.

"All right, that's enough. Come on, we just got the get out of jail free card. Let's go enjoy some freedom. I made friends with Chef Olive's assistant, Darron, earlier. Let's go see if he'll give us a taste of something," Jack said with a wink. As they walked toward the kitchen, they passed the formal living room which was now stacked with gifts wrapped in beautiful sparkly paper with artistically arranged ribbons. The Doctor stopped and stared.

"Oh, no, you don't. That would violate Jackie's stay out of trouble rule," Jack said, tugging at the Doctor's arm. The Doctor turned and smiled at him as he twisted out of his grip and dashed to the present filled room. Jack and Jake followed quickly as the Doctor examined a large rectangular gift wrapped in elegant silver paper with a bright blue ribbon affixed to it. They knew they were in trouble when he pulled out the sonic. Jack acted quick and grabbed the sonic out of his hand.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing!" the Doctor demanded as he chased Jack. Jack shoved the sonic down his trousers and smirked at the Doctor.

"Go ahead, Doc, make my day!" Jack challenged grinning. Jake stood off to the side leaning against the wall looking from one to the other. The Doctor looked down at Jack's trousers like he was contemplating it. Frank’s assistant walked into the room carrying an armload of gifts which he set down on a table off to the side interrupting the Doctor-Jack sonic confrontation. He looked from the Doctor to Jack to Jake and was about to say something when an ear piercing whistle sounded. The assistant jumped and then darted out the door.

“Bloody hell, she’s got everyone on edge,” Jake said. “Whatever direction that came from, we’re going the other way.”

Jack and the Doctor nodded as they peeked out the door to see if the coast was clear. They quickly found there way into the kitchen where Jack’s new friend, Darron, provided them with a sampling of nibbles.

Later, everyone was in the final countdown for the wedding ceremony. Designers, caterers, florists and the various assistants rushed back and forth across the Tyler mansion as everyone dressed and prepared themselves. The Doctor, Jake and Jack were dressed in their black tuxes and waiting in the library. Jack poured them each a glass of whiskey.

"Well, Doctor, this is it. In less than thirty minutes you will officially be Rose's husband and Jackie's son-in-law," Jack said.

Jake snorted and sipped his whiskey. The Doctor glared at Jack but then his face softened and he smiled. "Humans and your need to categorize things and stick labels on them. This isn't about that. It's about family and keeping promises." He sipped his whiskey and looked up at Jack. "Rose and I made promises to each other. This is just like a public announcement that we belong to each other."

Jake's mobile beeped and he fished it out of his jacket. When he read the message, he groaned. "Blimey, the wedding woman's gonna have a fit," he exclaimed.

"Why, what's happening?" Jack asked.

"The Doctor and Rose are getting married and all hell's gonna break loose, that's what," he quipped and punched something into his mobile and looked at the Doctor, who had a bit of a gleam in his eyes.

"Come on, Jakey! What is it? Alien invasion, an outbreak of Kulotak? Slitheen? Oooooo, is it a tsunami of Ectoploran mold?" he asked, bouncing with excitement.

Jake just shook his head. "Sometimes you are just terrifying in an alien nutter kind of way. No, it's that zombie thing. A pack of 'em attacked some utility workers. Harris is on it but wanted to let us know just in case things got worse."

Jack looked out the window and turned back to them. "It's overcast out. Doc, didn't you say these things stick to shady or dark places since light bothers them?"

The Doctor walked over and stood next to Jack looking out the window. "Perfect for a zombie hoard to run amok," he said softly.

"That's just bloody great!" Jake said and began calling Torchwood and advising them to expect more of the hungry undead out in the open.

While Jake talked to Torchwood, Jack turned to the Doctor. "You think we'll have some undead wedding crashers?"

The Doctor ran his hand through his hair and sighed. "It's a possibility. We did find disturbed graves the other night. Best be prepared."

"I figured you'd say that," Jack said and smiled a bit. "Don't worry Doc, I got it covered," he told the Doctor and slapped him on the back.

Fraunk's assistant knocked and opened the door to let them know it was time. The Doctor turned to Jack who smiled at him and pulled him into a hug. "Come on, Doc, let's go get you and Rosie hitched before the zombie apocalypse is on top of us." The Doctor grinned at him and they walked toward Fraunk's startled assistant, who was gaping slightly at this news. Jake followed behind them muttering about trouble magnets, the walking dead and where was a flame thrower when you needed one.

Everyone was seated outside. Although it was overcast and a bit cold, the garden was bursting with greenery and blooms. It was as if garden fairies had been working all night to bring the frozen winter garden to life. Lush green ivy and various other greenery lined the areas for the wedding ceremony and the path to the tents for the reception. Vivid blue hydrangeas and Iris interspersed with white orange blossoms decorated the area and a stunning white arbor with ivy and white jasmine stretched over the dais where Rose and the Doctor would take their vows. A Tardis blue runner covered the aisle between the two sets of white chairs. Heating units in a silver sculpture like design surrounded the area to offset the chill in the air.

Jackie walked up to the group of men peeking out of the house, seeming to look at the crowd. Of course, in reality, they were scoping the area for any zombies.

"You all look so handsome," Jackie said, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. She was wearing a full length silver blue, long sleeved silk empire waist gown with a deep rounded neckline. She wore a pearl necklace with a diamond encrusted sapphire teardrop pendent. Her hair was arranged in soft curls in an elegant updo with some white flowers in the pins holding it up. She faced the Doctor, who smiled at her. He walked over and hugged her. She looked up at him. "This is it. The day I never thought I'd get to see. Thank you," she whispered as they embraced.

When she stepped back she pulled herself together and smoothed her dress. "Just you remember, no alien stuff," she told him, poking him in the chest . She walked over to Jack and turned to the Doctor one more time. "And Doctor, take care of her." He nodded and turned to Jake.

"Well bast moan, you ready?" he asked, using Fraunk talk.

Jake walked up and nudged him forward "Come on, groom, let's go get ya married," Jake teased back. 

They made they're way to the dais where the officiate, Reverend Mills, was already waiting. They stood at the front looking out at the crowd of smiling guests. As the Doctor fidgeted, he observed the crowd, his breath caught as he saw Ianto Jones sitting next to the Eternal, Harmony, who smiled and nodded at him. He nodded back nervously and scanned the crowd again only to see the Eternal Turmoil whispering in the ear of another wedding guest, lounging about in a casual blue suit and trainers. He winked at the Doctor and turned his attention back to the poor unsuspecting woman who he was undoubtedly encouraging to do some sort of mischief for him. The Doctor groanedbut before he could do or say anything, Jack walked up and seated Jackie and stood next to him. The Doctor looked at him and mouthed, "Eternals." Jack stiffened and tried to casually scan the crowd.

The music changed and the bridesmaids carrying flowers of calla lilies and deep blue irises, walked toward the dais. Tony soon followed and upon seeing the Doctor ran the last half of the way down the aisle bringing a smile to the Doctor’s face. A traditional wedding march began to play. Pete, dressed in a black tux, escorted a beaming Rose Tyler. Her dress was a one shouldered pure white beautifully draped simple silk gown which was more an elegant, modern interpretation of a Greek style toga. It was fitted around her bust and gently flared a bit around her hips but was still a slightly form fitting gown. A set of elegant combs encrusted with some pearls, rhinestones and blue sapphire-like stones held her hair up in soft curls. 

She wore Jackie’s diamond and sapphire teardrop earrings and no other jewelry other than the bracelet the Doctor had given her during their first Eternal task. All the jewelry was pale in comparison to the sparkle in her eyes and her dazzling smile as she gazed at the Doctor at the end of the aisle. The Doctor returned her gaze staring at her in wonderment. Slowly, she and Pete walked down the aisle until they reached midway when the musicians changed the tempo of the song making it a faster beater with a jazz element. Rose and Pete paused and then Rose giggled when she saw the Doctor waggle his eyebrows at her and wink. Pete cracked a huge smile as he and Rose made their way to the Doctor.

Pete stopped at the dais, stared sternly at the Doctor and then smiled and stepped aside so Rose could take his hand. He stepped down and sat next to Jackie immediately reaching for her hand. The Doctor looked at Rose his eyes reflecting warm emotions before a huge grin lit his face. She bumped him with her shoulder and looked down, lifting her dress up slightly to show him sparkly Tardis blue trainers similar to the white ones he wore. If it was possible, he grinned even brighter. Reverend Mills cleared his throat. Rose and the Doctor straightened and faced him, still holding hands.

Reverend Mills began the ceremony. “We are gathered here today to celebrate the long overdue union of Doctor John Smith who we all know as the Doctor and his beloved Rose Tyler."

The Doctor sent Rose a psychic message. "Your mum wrote this script, didn‘t she?" Rose gave him the psychic equivalent to shush.

"Marriage is a sacred bond. It's an everlasting promise of love and fidelity and not to be taken lightly without careful thought and introspection. We all know that the Doctor and Rose have endured and persevered over many challenges set before them. They are a testament to how love and faith overcomes all trials and tribulations. Now, they wish to share their joy and celebrate their matrimonial union with all their friends and family. They have each prepared their own vows to each other." He stepped back and nodded to Rose who turned so that she was looking the Doctor in the eyes.

"My Doctor, from the word "run" I knew my life would never be the same. You helped open my eyes to all the wonders of the universe and helped me find a strength within myself I didn't know I had. With you, everyday was an adventure and an opportunity to learn and marvel at how beautiful life is, even the small things that most people take for granted. I learned what love really meant the day you took my hand. When I lost you... I… it was like the universe collapsed around me." Rose paused as tears pooled in her eyes. The Doctor squeezed her hands. She took a deep breath and continued. 

"Losing you was horrible and it made me realize more than ever how deeply I love you. I never want to lose you again. I never want you to be alone. I love you forever. I know I once promised you my forever but I want to reaffirm that forever now. I'm not gonna let anything stop me from that promise.” The Doctor's eyes teared up and he cleared his throat.

"My Rose, when I met you I was a bitter, jaded self loathing old man. You showed me life was worth living. You took my hand in yours and never flinched no matter how bad things were or the terrible things we faced. I tried to drive you away showing you how destructive and horrible life can be and you didn't turn away. You asked for chips and told me I wasn't alone. I fell a little in love with you over those chips. Through time and space, adventure after adventure, still you held my hand. When I changed, I knew it was difficult for you and yet you still held my hand. You became the center of my universe, grounding me, inspiring me making me want to be better. Losing you was like having a piece of myself ripped away. Seeing you again, your beautiful smile and the light in your eyes it..." He paused and his voice cracked. 

"It brought a part of me back to life I thought was dead and buried. You never gave up and believed in me even when I couldn't. When I came here, I was scared, terrified really. I was afraid you'd had enough and realized you could do so much better than me. Again, you taught me about faith and love. My love for you burns hotter and deeper than the core of a super nova. Rose Tyler, I promise you my forever.”

Tony stepped forward with the rings. Rose bent down and kissed him on the head and squeezed his shoulder. The officiate asked them to place the rings on each others hands.

They placed the rings on their fingers and looked deep into each others eyes. Rose could hear Jackie sniffing in the background and realized that everyone around them including Jake and Jack were tearing up. She was deeply touched and felt an overwhelming sense of happiness and joy being surrounded by so many people who they loved and loved them.

"Doctor, I take you into my heart, mind and soul. I promise to love you, honor you, tell you no when I think your gonna blow something up and never leave you. I will be your soft place to fall and take you in my arms and love you completely and utterly." The Doctor cracked a smile and nudged her. "Oh, yeah, I promise to always stock your banana cabinet and stay with you through all of time in space until the end of everything."

Jackie rolled her eyes and Pete snorted. Jake muttered 'nutters' while Jack and the bridesmaids grinned.

The Doctor, grinning brightly, gently caressed the platinum ring with the square cut diamond that seemed to have an inner core of a deep blue sapphire which he had placed on her finger. “Rose Tyler, I will forever love you, honor and respect you, feed you all the bananas you want and protect you from the oncoming zombie hoard.”

Rose stared as his face fell and his eyes widened. She slowly turned around to see what he looked at. The wedding party turned in unison to see the unthinkable. Dozens of the undead in various stages of decomposition were crawling limping and sloughing their way through the immaculately decorated garden toward the wedding guests.

"Fuck me," Jake muttered. Pete and Jackie turned around and their eyes went wide. Jackie stood up, a look of determination on her face.

"Oh, no, you don't! Fraunk!" she yelled, as what would be the first wave of zombies crashed through the elegant wedding decorations.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a bit fond of this verse and will be adding many more stories that follow Rose, TenII and their friends in their many adventures. Next up will be the honeymoon fic which is already written.

As Rose turned and watched the putrid, deteriorating flesh of the undead staggering through the greenery and wedding decorations in the garden, she heard her mother scream for Fraunk. The Doctor gripped her hand and with his other hand reached into his pocket for his sonic. Jack and Jake tensed. The Doctor muttered about the Tux of Doom and she looked at him.

"What! It is. May not be the same one but still, Tuxes are bad luck!" he proclaimed.

Fraunk and his assistant began shouting at the wedding guests. "Lodies and jauntlemon we appear to half a teeny problem. Pless quickly run for you lifes!" Fraunk shouted and motioned toward the house. Chairs were overturned as the guests rushed to escape the lumbering undead. The zombies were moving surprisingly quickly considering pieces of them were falling off or oozing vile fluids. They made groaning, cracking and slurping noises as they approached. One, who was dressed in an old fashioned Victorian suit, dragged its useless leg as it reached for the fleeing guests, its shriveled and dried up mouth suddenly gurgling black fluid as it tried to make a sound.

Rose winced and bumped into the Doctor who looked on in horrified fascination. He bounced on his feet like he wanted to run over and examine it. Rose turned to him. “Don’t even think about it. You’re not touching that stuff.”

“But Roooose, zombies!” he said excitedly, his eyes wide and sparkling.

Pete was on his mobile calling for back up as Jackie and Fraunk continued to get everyone inside. Jake and Jack backed away toward a hedge.

"Tony!" Jackie called out, as Pete tried to push her toward the house. Jackie's scream for Tony startled Rose out of the horrified daze she was in and she began frantically searching for her brother.

"I see him!" Chelsea called out, pointing toward the tents where Tony had run. Rose saw him peeking out, his eyes wide with terror.

"I'll get him!" Mandy shouted, hiking up her dress, tossing her heels and making the run for the tents. Chelsea ran toward Jack and Jake who were pulling swords out of the bushes and seemed perturbed there weren’t enough swords for her to have one. Rose turned to Pete and her Mum who were having a loud argument.

"I'm not going anywhere while my son and daughter are out here!" she insisted. Pete was flush with anger.

"For God's sake woman, get inside now. I'll take care of Rose and Tony.”

"I said, I'm not leaving them or you! Don't you dare try and order me around, Pete Tyler. I lost you once and I'm not gonna let that happen again and I'm certainly not leaving my kids while some disgusting zombie things attack!"

Pete stared at her part in anger and part in admiration. "Fine! Just stay out of the way and for God's sake don't let them touch you. We don't know what exposure to the living dead will do." He turned toward Jake and Jack who were walking up with swords. 

"That all you have?" he asked, looking admiringly at the swords and realizing they were the swords from his study. He glared at them and if it wasn't for the fact they were about to be overrun by the undead, he'd be railing on them.

"Where the bloody 'ell did you get those!" Jackie shouted and put her hands on her hips as she glared at them.

"Uh, the hedge. Thought we should be prepared for anything," Jack explained.

"Yeah Jackie, it is the Doctor and Rose getting hitched. We was just being; careful, ya know," Jake said, smiling until one of the zombies started knocking over chairs.  
Rose hefted up her skirts and ran over with the Doctor. Chelsea grabbed Fraunk's assistant and told him to get anything flammable he could and bring it out to them.

Jake and Jack looked at each other grinning. “Bet you I hack up more of ‘em than you,” Jack said cockily.

“Not bloody likely Scooby. Bet ya fifty quid I take out more than you,” Jake bragged.

“You’re on, Shaggy,” Jack responded with a bit too much enthusiasm.

“Oi! This isn’t no game here! It’s a wedding! Now enough of this taunting and bragging, go out there and get rid of ‘em now!” Jackie demanded. Jake and Jack saluted and rushed the zombies screaming at the top of their lungs wielding their swords before them. Dressed in their black tuxes, they were the most fashionable zombie attack squad in the history of Torchwood.

Rose rolled her eyes. “What is it with blokes and zombies,” she muttered, as she scanned the area looking for something to use as a weapon.

"Aww I want a sword," the Doctor pouted beside her, as he watched Jack and Jake hacking at zombies. Rose sighed and shook her head. Jackie looked ready to slap him.

Fraunk just stared in horror. Finally, Fraunk snapped out of it and grabbed a tall stand and dumped the cascading flowers that were sitting atop of it. He held it in front of himself and looked over at Jackie. "My dear Mrs. Tyler, Fraunk ess raddy to defawnd his bride and her mauther from the hideous undad," he announced, hands shaking.

Fraunk’s assistant and a group of hairdressers and wedding staff burst out of the house, their arms filled with bottles of liquor, hairspray and other aerosol cans. Pete raked his hands over his face. “Bloody Hell, we’re about to be attacked by zombies and I got a snooty wedding planner and hairdressers defending my house,” Pete muttered.

“Oooo brilliant!” the Doctor said in glee, when he saw the aerosol cans. “Instant blow torch!” He grabbed a couple of the cans and then eyed a bottle of vodka.

Rose walked over. “Doctor? What you have in mind?” she asked.

“A little fire power.” He looked over his shoulder and watched Jake and Jack hacking and slashing at the zombies. Bits of zombie and goo were flying everywhere. Every once in a while Jake would yell “Take that you zombie buggers!” and hack off an arm or a leg. Unfortunately, that wasn’t sufficient and the torso, arm or fingers would keep inching closer to the wedding party turned zombie defenders.

Chelsea and the Doctor explained to everyone how to use the aerosol cans as blow torches and everyone was given a lighter or matches. Luckily, despite Rose’s veto, Jackie had ordered matchbooks with a monogram of a D and R on them as wedding favors. Jackie quite happily pointed this fact out while Rose rolled her eyes.

The Doctor turned to the bottles of liquor. Chelsea pulled off the caps and started tearing strips off her dress much to Jackie‘s horror. She looked over at Jack and Jake who were losing ground and being overwhelmed by the seemingly unending stream of zombies crashing through the garden. “Doctor, I’ve got this. You and Rose go help Jake and Jack. I won’t be far behind and then we can start roasting the arses of those disgusting dead things.”

The Doctor made a face. “Roasted undead. Bleck.”

Pete stepped up. “We’ll create a perimeter with people armed with the blow torches. I don’t want these bombs near the house. Last thing we need is for the house to catch fire cause some bottle of vodka or ….” he said and stopped as he looked at one of the bottles.

“That’s fifty year old scotch! You don’t bomb zombies with fifty year old scotch!” he told them and swiped the bottle away from her and took a swig. Jackie walked up and glared at him. She snatched the bottle and took a swig herself, coughing a bit. Chelsea muttered under her breath about the world coming to an end and people arguing about which bloody liquor to use to blow up the undead.

Suddenly, Rose ran up and grabbed one of the larger cans of aerosol. Jackie turned to her. “What do you think you’re doing!” she demanded. Rose looked toward the tents where Mandy and Tony were hiding. There was a group of zombies lumbering over toward them. “No!” Jackie shouted in horror.

Rose hiked up her skirts and in a flash of white wedding dress and blue trainers dashed off to protect Mandy and Tony. Jackie looked at everyone. “For Gawd’s sake! Someone do something! That’s my daughter and son!”

The Doctor knocked over one of the heating units and started sonicing it. Pete watched him and understanding lit his eyes. “The heating units!” he shouted. He ran over to another one and pulled it down. Once the Doctor finished his, he handed it to Pete who dragged it over to Jack and Jake and hit the button on the side to increase the heat. 

With the top off the heater and with the Doctor‘s modifications, it became a large blow torch and he proceeded to roast the zombies. Jack and Jake looked at him, grinned and high fived each other. The Doctor, seeing the success of Pete and the assistants and hairdressers using the aerosol can turned blow torches, hefted the heater on his shoulder and ran toward Rose.

Meanwhile, Rose reached the zombies heading for the tent. “Oi! You zombies! You want to eat my wedding guests do ya! Well, how bout some of this!” she shouted and used her sonic to set the aerosol spray on fire and blow-torched the zombies. Unfortunately, this did not stop them and they kept coming forward only burning now.

“Shit! Not good,” she said and backed up toward the tent. Mandy ran up to her with a bottle of champagne which she shook and then popped the cork spraying champagne over the zombies. Rose smiled and hit them with her blow torch and the fire engulfed them. She high fived Mandy and they ran toward the tent leaping over a table barricade Mandy had erected. Tony ran up to Rose and looked at her in awe.

“Rose! You burned up the zombies! I love you Rosie!” he said and wrapped his arms tightly around her. She looked down at him and ruffled his hair.

“You okay?” she asked. He nodded his head although she noticed his suit was covered most suspiciously with white, silver and blue icing with an edible ball bearing hanging precariously off one frosting-encrusted sleeve. She raised an eyebrow and looked at her wedding cake which now had a gouge in it. She turned to Mandy who was shoving more tables over to the entrance. Mandy grinned and shrugged.

“Right, let’s get this barricade up. Tony, you watch the rest of the tent and let us know if any get in, ‘kay?” He nodded and saluted. Rose and Mandy stacked tables and chairs at the entrance while listening to the still burning zombies throwing themselves at the table barricade and tent. The chandeliers swung precariously as the zombies continued their assault. 

Rose knew it wouldn’t be long before they got in. She grabbed Tony and Mandy to head to the back of the tent. She soniced a slit in it and stuck her head out. She saw the Eternal Turmoil leaning against a tree, smiling at her, holding up a champagne flute. She turned back to Mandy and Tony. “Stay here while I check things out.”

“But Rose,” Mandy protested.

“I’ll be fine Mandy. Just protect Tony, ‘kay,” Rose said. Mandy nodded and she and Tony ducked back inside. Rose walked toward Turmoil.

“What do you think you’re doing here?” Rose asked, her arms crossed as a gentle breeze fluttered her wedding dress about her.

Turmoil grinned. “You look stunning, Wolf. Only you could have such a fun wedding. I mean, look at this! You have zombies running amok. It’s very entertaining and zombielicious. Most human weddings are dead boring. Just goes to show you’re no ordinary human,” he told her, tossing his glass over his shoulder where it shattered.

“Right, then I suppose you wouldn’t have anything to do with this whole zombie stuff? I mean, we finished the Eternals' task list. Aren’t you lot suppose to leave us alone now?” Rose asked, tapping her foot beneath her dress and staring at him crossly.

He laughed. “Oh Wolf, don’t get your knickers in a twist. We’ll keep our word. No one’s gonna mess with you over that orb business. Course, just ‘cos we promised you that, doesn’t mean we won’t find some entertainment on this planet or galaxy. There’s just too much potential here. I mean, is it our fault the primitives used some archaic not to mention barbaric way of burying their rotting flesh so that some cosmic energy happens to have a bit of fun with them,” he said, as he kicked at a stake holding up the tent which was now wobbling a bit.

“And you just happened to wander by my wedding ‘cos you were bored?” Rose asked.

He grinned at her. “Can’t blame me from wanting to watch you marry the annoying Time Lord wannabe now can you? Besides, I like you. Several of us do you know." He reached over and pulled a thread on the tent causing a larger tear. "The universe is a tiny place. It’s pretty easy to bump into someone you know,” he explained with a wink. “Now then, seems like you’re missing out in all the fun. Better be on your way,” he said and turned to walk off. As he was walking away, he called out over his shoulder, “See ya around, Wolf.” He faded away as he walked back into the woods.

Rose sighed. “Zombies and bloody Eternals,” she moaned. She turned back to the tent and called to Mandy and Tony. The three of them made a run for it. They dashed behind the next tent and peeked around the corner to see where the zombies were.

Mandy turned to Rose. “We need to get to the house. I called Malcolm while Tony and I were hiding out and he’s on his way with something he thinks has a good chance of neutralizing the effect of the mutated bacteria, but he says it’s chaos in the city and it might take a bit before he and Torchwood can get here.”

Rose groaned and looked down at Tony who was clinging to her leg. “Well, we’ll just have to hold them off and toast us some zombies till then.” Tony looked up her and scrunched his nose in disgust. Rose smiled at him. “Yeah, me too Tony. Come on, it looks clear. Let’s make a run for it.” 

The girls hitched up their dresses and Rose took Tony’s hand as they cautiously made their way toward the house. Midway, a pack of zombies appeared from the opposite side of the house from the other zombie hoard. They appeared to be newer corpses and were less decomposed. The zombies with pale and peeling flesh were galloping toward them dressed in the suits and dresses they had been buried in and growling and hissing the whole way.

“Tony, get behind me,” Rose ordered. She pulled out her aerosol and Mandy wielded one of the poles that was used to hold up the tent. They continued moving toward the house but it was obvious the zombies were going to intercept them.

Rose heard the Doctor call out, “Rose!” She looked up and saw him wielding some modified heating unit. He ran toward the zombies and shot flames from the device on his shoulder. Chelsea ran up behind him. Lit a bottle on fire and threw it at the zombies. There was a huge woosh as flames consumed the zombie pack.

“Whhhhooooah,” Tony said in awe.

Mandy looked at Rose who grinned. “That’s my husband,” she said pleased. More zombies were coming up over the hill and Chelsea hurled another bomb toward them. Rose grabbed Tony and they all dashed toward the Doctor.

“You all right?” he asked, looking from Rose to Tony to Mandy.

“Yeah, we are now,” she said with a huge grin. “Nice flame thrower.”

He grinned and patted it and pointed to the sonic in his pocket. “Oh, just something I cobbled together for the zombie attack,” he said, preening a bit.

“Hmmm. Very nice,” Rose responded. “Nothin like a man with a flame thrower in the midst of a zombie attack to make a girl all…”

“Excuse me!” Chelsea butted in. “Flirt later, hack and burn the undead now! And, for Gawd’s sake get the kid to Jackie before she rains holy Hell on us all!” Chelsea shouted.

They all nodded and the group headed back toward the house stopping halfway so Chelsea could hurl another bottle bomb at the zombies and the Doctor could set them further on fire with his converted heating unit flame thrower. When they were closer to the house, they could see that Jack, Jake, Pete and assorted wedding staff were keeping the zombies at bay. Jackie and Fraunk were behind them wielding what was formerly a stand to hold flowers but was now broken down into some type of weapon.

Tony screamed, “Mummy!” and ran for Jackie. She turned and dropped her weapon and scooped him up, tears in her eyes. Rose raced over while Chelsea went for more bottle bombs and the Doctor and Mandy turned to protect the perimeter from the zombies that had followed them. Jake turned and saw that they now had zombies on two fronts.

“Bloody hell! There’s more of ‘em.” Pete looked over and cursed. He called to one of the wedding staff to back up the Doctor and Mandy.

“I’ll go!” Jack called out and raced over to assist on the second front. Rose convinced Jackie to take Tony inside and she grabbed her Mum’s weapon and stood next to Fraunk.

“You gonna be okay Fraunk?” Rose asked concerned for the refined wedding planner now forced into zombie duty.

“My bride, I will stun by you till the aund,” Fraunk assured her.

Rose smiled and hugged him. Mandy came running up to her, her mobile in hand. “Rose! Malcolm just called and he’ll be here in about fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen minutes, well we can do that can’t we, Fraunk.” Rose said. Fraunk nodded enthusiastically. Rose heard one of the hair dressers shriek as one of the zombies grabbed her. Rose ran over and started bashing it. Jack saw that Rose needed help and ran over to hack the arm of the zombie, unfortunately splattering Rose and the hairdresser with zombie guts. 

Rose jumped back just as Jack hacked off the head. By this time the hairdresser was hysterical and Rose sent her inside. Rose looked down at her dress now with splatters of green and black goo on it. Mandy had a horrified look on her face and then looked down at her own dress, her face scrunching in disgust.

Jack looked at them and said “Sorry” before dashing back to the Doctor.

Rose sighed. “Mum’s gonna have a fit when she sees this.” Mandy just nodded as she pulled her dress away from herself examining similar slimy and gooey spots. Someone ran up to Rose with a shovel and thrust it at her. She grabbed it and she and Mandy ran over to the Doctor. Chelsea handed Mandy some liquor bombs and they two of them alternated with throwing the flaming liquor at the zombie hoard.

The Doctor looked over at Rose with a manic grin on his face as his modified heater-flame thrower was smoking from his last torching of zombies. Rose grinned back at him, holding the shovel, ready to defend them against zombie attack. The Doctor looked her in the eye and grabbed her hand. “I’m so glad I met you,” he said to her, in echo of another time they faced the undead.

She grinned and said back to him. “Me too.”

The pulled each other into a snog until Chelsea yelled at them to “Save it for the honeymoon! Now let’s burn zombies!” They reluctantly parted, grinned and stood side by side at the front with the Doctor torching zombies and Rose smashing them across the head. Chelsea and Mandy continued hurtling liquor bombs while an assortment of wedding staff and hairdressers stood by them with aerosol cans turned into torches and an assortment of other items turned into spears and weapons.

Before long, they heard the thud, thud, thud of a helicopter and watched as it swooped over the trees and landed on the back lawn. Several Torchwood agents and Malcolm hopped out the back carrying what looked like super soakers. They rushed up to the zombies and began spraying them with a yellowish looking fluid. A horrible stench filled they air and the zombies slowly began to fall.

Mandy looked up to see Malcolm dressed in his tweed suit, glasses askew holding one of the super soakers. The moment he looked up and their eyes met, it was like time stopped for them. He ran to her through the mound of fallen zombies, tripping and falling face first onto a withered and oozing corpse. Mandy began making her way over to him as he sat up holding a still wiggling finger seemingly fascinated by it. “Malcolm,” she called to him. He looked up smiled and stood. They both made their way over to each other until they simultaneously tripped and Mandy fell on top of Malcolm.

“Mandy, you were um quite magnificent with your..” he said, stopping to focus on her bottle, the top of which was still burning. “quite incendiary alcoholic substance.”

“Oh, she said and tossed it aside, lighting a zombie on fire who had been creeping close to them. She reached up and touched her face. “I lost my glasses!” she announced.

Malcolm stared at her bosom. “Uh well they are…that is to say they appear to be..” he stuttered and with shaking hands plucked them from the décolletage where they were perched half in the neckline of her dress and gently put them on her face although a bit crooked. She stared at him and gripped him by the lapels and pulled him into a snog. He flailed a bit and seemed unsure what to do but eventually put his arms around her and pulled her closer.

Rose and the Doctor walked up with Chelsea. “Awww look at them! They’re adorable!” Rose said, curling up to the Doctor’s side. He grinned and looked down at her with affection.

Chelsea stood by them and rolled her eyes. “They’re snogging in a disgusting pile of decomposing corpses. How is that in anyway adorable?” Malcolm and Mandy pulled apart and looked up blushing.

“Doctor!” Malcolm exclaimed, struggling to stand amid the zombie corpses. Mandy hopped up and helped him stand and they slowly made their way over to the Doctor, Rose and Chelsea.

“Malcolm! So tell me, what was in the solution and if I can just say, love the delivery method!” the Doctor enthused, as Malcolm handed him the super soaker which the Doctor gazed at with unabashed envy.

“Ah yes! Well, we created a solution based on the sample we obtained from a grave. This solution is based on a microscopic organism which attacks the original bacteria. Basically, this other organism ingests the bacteria even the mutation.”

“Brilliant,” said the Doctor, practically cooing over the super soaker.

“Hey Doc! Could you give us a hand over here?” Jack shouted. The Doctor turned to Rose, a hopeful look in his eyes.

“Go,” she said giggling. He grinned and took off. She heard him yell “Ha!” as he began soaking the zombies with Malcolm’s anti-zombie solution. Chelsea ran behind him calling out “Oi! Give me one of those soaking things!“

Rose, Mandy and Malcolm walked back to the house as the zombie hoard was quickly turned into a smelly, undead pile of decomposing corpses. Jackie opened the door and stared at the piles of bodies and winced when she caught a whiff of the horrible smell.

“Look at this mess!” she shouted and with hands on hips glared at the Torchwood agents who were slapping each other on the back and whooping up their success. Pete, now splattered with a combination of zombie goo and ant-zombie formula, walked over to Jackie to try and calm her down.

“Pete Tyler don’t you dare take another step closer!” she exclaimed, staring at him in disgust. “You are not coming anywhere near the inside of this house until you strip off all those filthy clothes and you can go straight to the laundry room and wash up. I won’t have that slimy, smelly stuff in my house.”

Pete sighed and looked at the wedding guests peering out the windows. He stared at Jackie and arched an eyebrow. “You want me to strip down to my pants in front of half of Torchwood, wedding guests and the tip top of society?”

Jackie huffed. “Don’t be daft! Go behind the bushes and I’ll have someone bring you a dressing gown.” Pete turned to see Jake grinning at him that is, until Jackie turned her glare to him as well. Jake’s smile fell and he backed up into the bushes. Jackie sighed and turned to Rose.

“No,” she gasped, as she saw Rose’s gown. Tears pooled in her eyes as she stared in horror at Rose’s zombie guts-splattered gown. The Doctor walked up, tossing his jacket into some bushes.

“What? Is everyone all right,” he asked, concerned at the look on Jackie’s face.

Jackie turned to him. “It’s, it’s Rose’s dress! It’s ruined. My baby’s perfect wedding gown, her perfect day is ruined!” she cried out. Fraunk raced up and patted her on the back.

“There, there my loafly Mrs. Tyler. Fraunk wall make it all batter,” Frank told her, gently leading her into the house.

“Don’t worry Jackie!” the Doctor said with great exuberance as he whipped out his sonic. “I’ll have this dress as good as new with my brand new anti zombie slime setting on my sonic. You won’t even know that Rose most brilliantly fought her way through a zombie apocalypse.” he said, grinning and wielding his sonic in front of him. 

Jackie rolled her eyes and then pulled herself together. “I want you both clean and inside. Torchwood can handle the clean up of all this zombie stuff. We have a wedding to get done and by God, we are going to have it. No stupid zombies are going to stop me from seeing you two get married!” she finished with assurance.

The Doctor’s grin fell slightly and Rose walked up and put her arm through his. Jack walked up to his other side. “Man, she is one determined woman,” he said as he flicked some zombie slime off his sleeve. So, sonic cleaning back in the bushes then?” Jack asked and indicated the bushes behind him.

The Doctor turned and tilted his head to one side in confusion. “Why the bushes?”

“Cos that’s where Mum sent Pete to go strip down and I think Jake followed him to do the same.”

“Right,” the Doctor said. “Guess I better get to that new sonic setting then.” Jack shook his head as they all walked to the bushes where they found Jake and Pete sitting on a stone bench, sharing a bottle of the fifty year old scotch.

The Doctor quickly programmed the new setting and de- zombie gunked the wedding party. Although, there was not much he could do with Chelsea’s torn dress which was sacrificed for the making of the liquor bottle bombs. Chelsea shrugged and said, “Commander Jackie will get it over it. The dress is a causality of the great zombie apocalypse.” She smiled as she said the last bit.

Now cleaned off, they all marched inside where they found Jackie and Fraunk entertaining the guests with wedding food. The caterers had even rescued the remainders of the wedding cake which sat a bit lopsided in the corner. Jackie brightened when they walked in and the wedding guests stood up and applauded. The Doctor’s eyes widened and he whispered to Rose. “Think she’d notice if we ducked out the side?”

“Yeah,” Rose answered and they walked in and greeted some of the guests.

Fraunk clapped his hands. “Lodies and jauntlemon, the undad menace has bin solved. Now lot us countanew with the wadding.”

Reverend Mills stepped forward and motioned Rose and the Doctor to the middle of the room. The Doctor looked at Rose who just grinned back at him. They walked hand in hand until they stood before the good Reverend. The Doctor leaned forward. “Well Reverend, told you this wedding would be one for the history books,” he said with a smirk.

The Reverend chuckled and then everyone settled in. “So, I think we left off with vows and rings. You still have the rings?”

Both Rose and the Doctor nodded and held up their hands and wiggled their fingers.

“Good,” the Reverend said and nodded. “Well then, so Rose, do you take the Doctor as your husband?”

“Yep,” she answered, grinning.

“Doctor, do you take Rose as your wife?”

“Yep,” he answered, popping his “p”

“Well, then as you have said your vows to each other, exchanged rings and agree to be husband and wife, there is really only one thing left to do,” Reverend Mills explained.

“Snog her?” the Doctor asked excitedly.

“Will you let the Reverend finish,” Chelsea chastised him and turned to Rose. “There’s still time to run you know.”

Rose smiled and gripping the Doctor’s hand replied, “Nope, he’s a keeper. He’s my forever.” The Doctor squeezed her hand and psychically sent to her his thoughts and feelings of love.

“Without further ado and before anything else falls from the sky or tries to attack us, I now pronounce you husband and wife.” The Doctor and Rose giggled. The Reverend leaned over. “You can snog her now.”

After the Doctor’s and Rose’s snog of happily ever after, Jackie and Fraunk arranged for more food and drink to be served and the band began playing music. The photographer snapped a few quick pictures and Rose insisted that some of the Torchwood agents who had rescued them be included. Jackie objected but knew she was overruled on this one.

Although the attempted zombie apocalypse may have dampened a few spirits, the infectious happiness and zest for adventure not to mention a great party, inspired the wedding guests to enjoy themselves. The Doctor and Rose danced the first dance to Unforgettable. The remainder of the “Tony nibbled cake” was served and the Doctor and Rose ate with gusto, feeding each other bits while giggling quietly. Before long, the party was roaring with much drinking and dancing. By the time Rose was able to extract herself from some overzealous and inebriated guests, she was about to drop from exhaustion. She quietly made her way over to a corner and leaned against a wall and closed her eyes for a moment reflecting on the day. She felt the Doctor wrap his arm around her shoulders.

“Hello,” he whispered to her.

She opened her eyes and looked into his eyes. “Hello,” she whispered back

“Tired?” he asked. She nodded her head.

“Then it’s time for us to make our secret get-away.”

Rose smiled up at him and leaned her head on his shoulder as she looked out at the crowd. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, even the society types that normally showed up to be seen and sniff at the less fortunate. Off in a corner, she watched as Jake grabbed Jack and pulled him into a snog.

The Doctor saw and grinned. “Well look at that. It’s a ‘we saved the world snog.’”

Rose turned and looked at him. “Um, those two aren’t….” she said, not finishing her sentence.

“Naw, don’t think so. Oh look over there,” he said pointing to Mandy and Malcolm dancing a slow dance. Mandy’s head rested on Malcolm’s shoulder and Malcolm had a look of pure unadulterated joy on his face.

“Awww, nothing like a good end of world crisis to bring people together,” Rose said, a bit misty eyed.

“Yep,” he replied, snuggling her closer to him.

“So, you ready to run?” he asked with a sparkle in his eyes. Rose looked up with a similar look reflected in her own eyes and nodded.

The Doctor scanned the room and with his hand tightly in hers began walking them to the exit. Of course, Jackie was prepared for this and before they could escape she blocked the way. She stood in front of them arms crossed, and blew the whistle she had tucked away in her dress. The music stopped and Fraunk stepped up.

“Lodies and Jauntlemon, may I half your attention pless. The bride and grome wall be leafing us soon. Lot us wish them all the bast for their forsure.” Fraunk said with his outlandish accent.

The Doctor turned to Rose. “Our for sure? Well suppose he’s sort of got it. We certainly are a sure thing being we promised forever and all.”

Jack and Jake walked up, each carrying a glass of liquor followed by Malcolm, Mandy and Chelsea. Chelsea stepped forward and raised her drink.

“To the Doctor and Rose. May you always keep the aliens at bay, the explosions to a minimum and stay well armed cause you‘re you, Torchwood’s favorite trouble magnets!”

Everyone shouted out “Hear, hear; Bloody right; and Snog her!”

The Doctor grinned. Jack walked up and hugged the Doctor. When he got to Rose, he stopped and looked over at the Doctor with a twinkle in his eye and then pulled Rose into a snog. When he pulled back and saw the Doctor’s annoyed expression he turned back to the crowd. “Hey, the chimney sweep has to snog the bride, it’s tradition!” Everyone laughed and the Doctor pulled Rose, who was blushing, tight to his side and tried to move them toward the exit. Jackie stopped them.

“Now see here, you remember your promise to take care of my daughter,” Jackie told him before embracing him in hug. He pulled back. “I promise. Trust me, I’m not gonna let anyone or anything hurt her. She’s the most important thing in my universe.” Rose hugged her Mum and Pete.

“So where are you going on your honeymoon?” someone shouted out.

The Doctor turned to Rose. “Further than we’ve ever gone before,” he said and grinned.

Jackie, being quite clever immediately grew suspicious. “You’re leaving to go off on some space adventure aren’t you?” she demanded.

“Maybe,” the Doctor answered, tugging at his ear and backing up with Rose in tow.

“Can’t you two stay on Earth for a bit? I mean really, how many times you gonna get a lift from some weird alien passing by?” she asked.

The Doctor got this mischievous look on his face. “Don’t need to bum a lift. We have our own ride now.” he told her, grinning and tensing to run for his life.

“What!” Jackie demanded. Pete was already rubbing his head for the upcoming tirade that was about to be unleashed upon them all.

“Oh yes! I am brilliant. Finest ship in the galaxy really. Only the best for my Rose,” he said and bumped his shoulder against hers. She grinned at him.

“Hell Doc, it’s not like anyone could beat your TARDIS,” Jack said in drunken enthusiasm.

“You bloody alien! Earth’s not good enough is it! You built yourself another time ship so you can take my daughter off to God knows where and when! What, you gonna disappear for another year making us worry about you!” she ranted.

“Mum, it’s not like that. The Doctor and I live at the Manor now. We just have the TARDIS for trips,” Rose explained, trying to placate Jackie.

“That’s right, I’m taking Rose on the honeymoon of all honeymoons. She deserves the best,” the Doctor said, again gazing fondly at his new wife.

Jackie sighed in defeat and then turned to Pete. “You knew, didn’t you!” she accused.

“Now Jackie, don’t blame Pete. He didn’t want you to be upset with everything going on with the wedding which I must say, and trust me this isn’t easy, was smashing. Simply brilliant as far as weddings go. So I guess I’m saying uh thanks,” he said, nervously rubbing at his neck.

Jackie turned back to him. “I upspose that’s as much of a compliment as I’ll ever get from you. Still, it’s not right you taking me daughter off and landing in the middle of some dangerous alien stuff.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. We won’t be doing too much dangerous stuff until the baby…” the Doctor started to say and then, realizing what he said, slapped his hand over his mouth. Rose groaned and slapped him on the shoulder.

“Baby!” Jackie shouted. She stared at Rose and it all clicked. “I knew something was up. You weren’t drinking and you fainted and…” Jackie said and then her eyes filled with tears. “I’m gonna be a grand!” she shouted. The wedding guests all cheered. Then, Jackie turned to the Doctor. “Oi! You knocked up my Rose before you married here you, you alien git!”

“Mum!” Rose exclaimed, as the Doctor cowered behind her.

Jackie stared at Rose and then her eyes got all misty. “My baby’s having a baby! Oh we have so much to do. Fraunk, get your book! We have to plan for my grand baby’s arrival. It’s not like these two can do it. Now then let’s see..” she said, as the Doctor and Rose used this as their cue to make their escape.

The last anyone saw them, they were running out the door, a bouquet of flowers was hastily chucked back through the door at the guests as Rose’s dress billowed behind her. The final sound echoing around the Tyler Estate was the vworp vworp of a Tardis dematerializing as two Defenders of the Earth hurdled into the Vortex.


End file.
